Creating the world for Chichester's Coram Boy
Simon Higlett has designed more than 400 shows for the theatre including around 60 for Chichester Festival Theatre.
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00:00 Okay.
00:03 Good afternoon, my name is Phil Hewitt, Group Arts Editor at Sussex Newspapers.
00:07 Lovely to speak to Simon Higlett. Such a familiar name at Chichester Festival Theatre, where you have designed
00:11 possibly something around 60 plays over the years, a remarkable number.
00:16 You are the designer for Coram Boy, which is play number two on the main house stage this summer,
00:22 and you're saying it's been a particular challenge, this one, hasn't it?
00:26 It has, it's such an epic piece with many, many, many scenes and many locations.
00:33 And Anna and I, the director, went to visit as many of the locations as were kind of still existing,
00:42 and indeed built them in the model, and in fact have kind of removed them because it's
00:47 too sweeping, too fast moving. Each scene is about two, three pages long, and it leaps around
00:55 all over the place. I mean, it will make a very good film.
00:57 So you almost can't be too specific, you've got to go to a suggestion.
01:00 No, yeah, if it's a very good film, we both decide it.
01:04 Or a very good radio play, which is the other one. But it does move very quickly, so it becomes...
01:10 And overall, you are needing to capture, as you were saying, a sad, melancholic melodrama.
01:19 That's right, yes, and interestingly, because I've done a fair amount of this, but you don't often do
01:24 plays set in 1740s, it's quite early, and you don't really get a chance... Amadeus was one I did,
01:30 but I know that was 1790s, but you don't get often a chance to do quite so far back, and it's all
01:36 based around Hogarth. And when you look at all those prints and things, there's a lot of brown.
01:41 And I said, we really don't want to do it brown, because it's the obvious colour to go for.
01:46 So this is actually black, black and grey. And the black helps a lot. There's a lot of candles
01:52 on stage, so it's quite, hopefully quite hazy and smoky, and there's little mirrors behind the
01:57 candles. So it's that kind of evening. And the wider context for this, you're saying the Festival
02:03 Theatre, it doesn't matter how many times you work there, is a difficult space to work in, isn't it?
02:08 It is. It's a tricky space. Yeah, because it's, as I was saying, it's like a big room, and audience
02:14 on three sides. So you're always aware of looking at another member of the audience, in a way, or
02:20 seeing beyond what's going on on stage to the audience watching the other side, which is great.
02:29 But you always kind of have to be aware of that. And you're not doing proscenium picture, where
02:34 you have control over exactly what they're seeing, because there are bits you can't control,
02:41 especially in the VOMS, when you meet someone going to the loo as your actors are coming.
02:46 This happens quite a lot of times. But anyway, and you're actually crossing that divide from the
02:51 VOMS up onto the stage, you're actually crossing the audience space, which is great, and relatively
03:00 unique. You don't get that in many theatres, because, you know, there's always a big divide.
03:04 And as I say, you're always aware. And you're also, the other thing that I always,
03:12 brings me up short, you're always aware of the technology above. You can never get rid of the
03:16 fact that you see all the lights, you see everything up there. And if you're flying
03:20 anything in, which you can just about do, you can see it. You can never really hide it,
03:26 which I quite like as well. So after all this work, when you actually watch it, are you able
03:31 to enjoy it in any sense as a member of the public? Oh, yeah, yeah. You're just thinking,
03:35 oh, this was that, and so on and so on. Yes, no, I know, very much. No, I do. I do. I do enjoy it.
03:41 The biggest challenge is solving the problems of the play, which is what I love doing.
03:48 And making it work for an audience today, and the actors who are in it. And then it's a bit,
03:56 it's a little bit like giving birth, you kind of hand it over to technicians and productions and
04:03 workshops and things. And on the first night, I'm done. That's me. If it works.
04:08 So you can enjoy it from then on in?
04:10 Yeah, yeah, yeah. I rarely go back and see stuff. Because if I do, I just get slightly annoyed,
04:17 because I didn't wish we should have. Oh, that was, why didn't we do that? And so I rarely go
04:23 back and see things. But this is going to the Lowry, so I think I will see it again.
04:28 It sounds such a fantastic prospect. Truly epic. It sounds wonderful. Simon,
04:33 lovely to speak to you. Thank you.
04:34 Thanks, Phil.
04:37 [BLANK_AUDIO]