Alex Eales
His designs for opera include: Le nozze di Figaro (Salzburg Festival); Don Giovanni (Royal Danish Opera); The House Taken Over (Festival d’Aix-en-Provence); Così fan tutte (Opera Holland Park); Clemency (ROH2 and Scottish Opera); Idomeneo (ENO), Rigoletto, Macbeth (Opera Theatre St Louis); Tarantula in Petrol Blue (Aldeburgh Music).
His designs for the theatre include: Neues Stück II (Tanztheater Wuppertal Pina Bausch); Cleansed (National Theatre, London); Maladie de la Mort (Théatre des Bouffes du Nord; Paris); 4:48 Psychose, Schlafende Männer, Reisende auf einem Bein, Glückliche Tage and Alles weitere kennen Sie aus dem Kino (Deutsches Schauspielhaus, Hamburg); Regeneration (Royal Theatre Northampton); Into the Woods (Théâtre du Châtelet, Paris); Not I/Footfalls/Rockaby, Anatomy of a Suicide (Royal Court); Fraulein Julie and Schatten (Euridyke sagt) (Schaubühne, Berlin); Reise durch die Nacht and Wunschkonzert (Schauspielhaus, Cologne); The Maids (Royal Dramatic Theatre, Stockholm); Design for Living (Salisbury Playhouse); Say It with Flowers and small hours (Hampstead Theatre Studio); The Breath of Life (Lyceum Theatre, Sheffield).
Image credit: Stephen Cummiskey
Featured Work
Cleansed
Sarah Kane’s Cleansed is infamous for its scenes of violence and unflinching portrayal of the extremes of personal relationships. Whilst the script separates the location of each scene, a decision was made to conflate the locations to one composite space.
The play is almost dreamlike in its more surreal moments and we used imagery from dreams to make sense of images such as flowers growing through the floor and imaginary figures inflicting physical harm to other characters. The set was also a composite: part hospital, part school, part psychiatric facility; its partial return to nature crosses the line between interior and exteriors.
The design developed in the studio from references of abandoned buildings in which being trapped and unable to leave might instil a sense of terror. Developing realistic images for the most difficult and upsetting moments in Kane’s play, increased the tension between audience and performer.
