I've been designing for the theatre for about 40 years.
My work includes opera, ballet,
contemporary dance, straight theatre
and musicals, including the set of The Lion King.
As an associate on Peter Gynt,
I worked very closely with Richard Hudson,
realising Richard's and Jonathan's ideas
in the form of technical drawings and model making.
Peter Gynt is very ambitious.
Ibsen wrote this play – he didn't intend it to be staged.
I think it's 27 scenes.
Therefore, it was quite a tricky thing to design.
Jonathan came with quite a lot of preconceived ideas.
He knew the play really well.
Jonathan and Richard would sit down.
They would have a conversation and they would discuss ideas.
From those ideas, I would then take that and look at the ground plan of the Olivier,
and practically and technically work out, "OK, this idea, how can we make this work?"
I think probably one of the most difficult scenes to design was the ship.
There was difficulty in how the design was developed for it,
because we needed to create height
because they were on board this ship.
We see Peter and we see, I think, four other people.
And then, we had to create an atmosphere of this kind of crazy storm,
tidal effect that's going on.
The ship sinks and then immediately, we move into Peter in the water, drowning.
Some of the biggest scene changes, I think,
are from Peter's meeting with the Woman in Green, which takes place in the woods.
They end up in the Hall of the Mountain King.
The difficulty we had with that scene was we had to try and create a space
where it felt like we had gone underground.
So, the transposition from the forest
into this wild dining hall with a lot of drunken pigs.
The staging is great, the way this kind of big platform comes towards you
where all the plates are lit up
and the trolls' faces are all lit up.
We worked on it for about eight months.
By the time the set was finalised,
you could then take all of those discussions that you've been having
and those ideas that you've been having
and then you realise them in the costume drawings
and the images that we put together for each of the characters.
The costumes at the beginning of the production have an old-fashioned,
sort of slightly 1950s feel.
We see people in a small Scottish town going to a wedding.
And then, as Peter is making his money,
the costumes get more vulgar
and the colours a little bit louder.
And then, by the third part,
actually, it could be sort of any period.
The clothes are quite generic.
So, you know, as well as everything else,
what has a sort of journey during the three hours of the play is the costume.
Each one of the... I think there are 26 in the cast,
all of them have multiple quick changes going on backstage.
People changing from, you know, a garage mechanic
into, you know, a pig troll.
I found it to be a very creative process.
It was challenging,
but I think, sometimes, the most fun designs that you can work on
can be the most challenging, because you have to start thinking outside of the box.
There's a version of it that we can find that can work.
It takes enormous resources to put on a play like Peter Gynt.
Only somewhere like the National Theatre can attempt to stage something like this.
I feel very privileged to be able to have this opportunity
to put on this rare classic.