Theatre design seems to be enjoying an incredibly fertile time. There are some amazing theatre sets in the West End at this time of year. For example, ‘Breakfast at Tiffany’s’ has an amazing multi-levelled set which manages to evoke New York in the middle of the twentieth century quite effortlessly. However, things do not always go quite as planned and it is often only the hard work of stage management teams and set builders which ensure not only that theatre sets are as effective as their designers intend, but that they work at all.
One of the most striking sets seen at the National Theatre in recent years was that for Howard Davies’ production of ‘Philistines’. The play was originally set at the turn of the twentieth century and the designer Bunny Christie created an incredibly detailed tenement house. Through the back windows of the set you could see further tenements and even the occupants of those houses going about their daily business.
One big feature of the set was real rain which poured down and rattled the windows during some of the scenes when individuals seemed unhappy with their lot. Unfortunately, this meant there was a lot of water effectively flooding the area under the stage. Clearly there were health and safety as well as practical considerations. The set builders solved the problem and the production garnered five star reviews.
At Keeley Hire we are one of the oldest suppliers of stage props and theatre sets having worked for the BBC and on Hollywood movies.
