The beloved Christmas classic, The Snowman, is making its triumphant return to Sadler’s Wells’ Peacock Theatre, from November 18th to December 30th, marking its 26th annual performance. Directed by Bill Alexander, with lighting by Tim Mitchell and choreography by Robert North, the production is brought to life by the imaginative designs of Ruari Murchison.
You have worked on many different impressive productions across your career, such as Les Miserables at Nottingham Playhouse, and King Lear at West Yorkshire Playhouse. How did you first get into set and costume design and what tips would you give young people who are looking to get into the theatre industry?
It was difficult to get into theatre design when I was young. It remains difficult perhaps more so now partly because of fewer theatres being open, and there are therefore fewer opportunities about.
In my case, I studied Biochemistry at University and embarked on a PhD! There was therefore a reluctance in some quarters to take my desire to become a theatre designer seriously!
Luckily, I managed to engineer a meeting with Ralph Koltai- one of my heroes in theatre design and he told me about an annual competition that the Arts Council ran. If you won it, you were sent to work for a year at a theatre in the theatre’s design department as an Assistant Designer.
With Ralph’s help, I entered the competition and then was one of the lucky ones that won a bursary- that year there were 8 of us. Things have very much changed now, the Designers’ Award Scheme was discontinued long ago as were design departments.
The only ‘competitive’ way in seems to be through the Linbury Prize. Entry conditions have changed today and it would be impossible for an independent designer as I was to actually enter the competition. An entrant has to be attached to a theatre design course already!
The best way today for someone wanting to get into theatre design is to go to one of the specialist Theatre Design courses run by different Universities. Their quality however is somewhat variable! So quite a lot of homework is needed.
What was the process like, translating the world of The Snowman from its original story, into its stage design? What were the key elements of the story you focused on and have you introduced any new design concepts to keep the production engaging for new and returning audiences?
Translating the world of The Snowman was unusual for both the Director Bill Alexander and me. The approach to each piece of work is usually very different to the last. We were both used to performance pieces with a script. The Snowman has no words [apart from the Carol Singer Scene and “walking in the Air’]. It is essentially a ballet piece with a very strong narrative.
When we started working on the piece, Act 2 was flimsy. If you look at the film, it is a quick round dance and party for Snowmen, so a scenario for a longer Act 2 had to be devised. We have had 3 different Acts over the performance history of The Snowman. The current version uses the Act 2 from 2000 featuring Jack Frost and The Snow Princess.
Designing the production was quite involved: I watched the animation and studied the book thinking of the simplest ‘canvas’ to visually present The Snowman. Contractually, we had to stick as closely as possible to the visual presentation of both the book and the animation. This made it tricky as both have very different visual styles, appropriate to their forms but not necessarily friendly to a stage presentation. We arrived at a snowy landscape with the boy’s family house set upstage. Later when we visit the inside of the house, we changed the scale of the props and furniture, ‘magnifying’ them if you like and focusing on them a room at a time. We moved through the house in a succession of visual scenes with only the essentials present for each scene.
The costumes of The Snowman took a huge amount of work from the Wardrobe department. They are derived from a simple premise- that each costume had to be moved and danced in.
I came up with the idea of using gathered net as the basic Snowman fabric. Simple but it takes about a mile of net strips to construct the basic costume with several different stiffnesses of net depending on where on the body it is used. It seems to work successfully, allowing a huge range of movement.
The same technique was applied to the animal costumes where the net looks like fur. In this case we had model heads made to my designs in a slightly cartoonish way. The human characters were stylised versions of ‘real’ clothes – they are vaguely 1950s-1960s in look to avoid the contemporary and to give a picture book animation feel they have been colour stylised.
The complete production has been colour ‘Pantoned’ with the set and props reduced to 12 colours with universal colour codes. It means that we can order repeat colours in for example paint in a universal colour system and know year on year that will be the same.
The design of The Snowman is treasured by many people but we have constantly introduced technological improvements, adhering strictly to the animation and book designs – where appropriate. Act 2 was originated by the team and could be more freely altered and developed.
The original design of Snowman was sensitive to the look of the animation and Book drawings bearing in mind that it was now a theatre production. We could have used far more projections for example than we did but it would have seemed a confusion of styles. There are many occasions when The Snowman and Boy have to interact with props and set – therefore one had to have those items present onstage. One might have preferred not to have them but the scenario asked for these specifics and although not in my natural design vocabulary, they had to be honoured.
We have constantly updated items in the design as new materials become available. Stretch materials have become far more readily available and have been introduced replacing older versions of the costumes. Different ways to launder and clean costumes have been introduced. The animal heads are refurbished every 5 years and only recently- after 20 years did we renew them.
The working drawings on the production have been collated and digitised. As there are several set design versions- [3 different sized touring versions as well as the Peacock version]. Various technical innovations in lighting equipment and computerised flying have been introduced but all in as unobtrusive way as possible.
The Snowman is an iconic and beloved holiday favourite. What design choices did you make to evoke that magic wintery feel? Is there any new technology you use in regards to stagecraft and special effects?
About 6 years ago we introduced computerised flying into the production. This means a much smoother flying sequence of the Boy and the Snowman.
Of course the aim has always been to make the production look as simple and clear as possible. BUT it is an incredibly complicated piece of theatre – set to music! A few years ago on a first night. part of the flying system got tangled with the lines supporting one of the portals on the set. The show was stopped and the set pieces separated but it then took around 20 minutes to reset the production [lighting, sound fly cues etc]. So complicated were the cues at that point in the show! We were only 5 minutes from the end!
One therefore has to be wary of introducing too much technology into any production. One thing is certain, it will ALWAYS go wrong at some point! Sometimes It is better to rely on old fashioned manpower.
In what ways did you collaborate with other creative team members such as the choreographer Robert North or the lighting designer Tim Mitchell? Is there anyone you hope to collaborate with in the future?
The production of Snowman was only the 2nd production that I had done with Bill Alexander at the time. Since then [more than 25 years] we have collaborated very frequently, not just in the UK but in many other countries.
Tim Mitchell and I had already worked on a number of productions when he came on board to work on The Snowman. His work as a lighting designer was essential to help tell the story of The Snowman. The lighting had to tell us things about, for example the room that we were in, or the fact that a fire was causing the Snowman to melt, that the Snowman has ‘hot legs’ after the motorcycle ride etc. In a production like this, a close collaborator is essential as a lighting designer. It is very much active story-telling and not just illumination of a scene.
What influences your practice and in what ways do you stay inspired and creatively engaged with the world around you?
I go regularly to the theatre to see different styles of production- drama, dance, opera musicals etc. in this country and abroad. In addition I go to art galleries to see their standard collections and originated exhibitions. Also I see films of many genres regularly. Constant reading of modern and historical fiction is an integral part of my life as well as actively being involved in teaching young practitioners- designer and more especially technical students in all aspects of the theatre process.