Claire Lyth
Claire is based in London and has worked in the USA, Hong Kong, Scandinavia, Germany, India, Vienna and Beirut. New writing is a particular interest (60 premieres to date), including the World Premiere of Shirley Valentine, as is Shakespeare (47 productions to date) including Twelfth Night, National Theatre of Norway; Macbeth, Everyman Theatre, Liverpool and the Residenz Teater, Munich. The Merchant of Venice, English Shakespeare Company. She is currently designing her ninth Macbeth for Lisbon.
Some other designs: The Man Who Thinks He’s It, The Steve Coogan Show, Lyceum, London; Goodness Gracious Me, Tour; Peter Pan and The Three Musketeers, Crucible, Sheffield; Rigoletto. WNO tour; My Fair Lady, Aarhus, Denmark; The Royal Hunt of the Sun, Hong Kong; Fungus the Bogeyman, Belgrade Theatre, Coventry; Split Second, Lyric Theatre, Hammersmith.
Recent designs include Little Fir Tree and a community opera in Suffolk The King’s River.
Image credit: Claire Lyth
Featured Work
The Drummer Boy of Waterloo
A fascinating story, socially and politically, about a group of child mill workers during the Napoleonic wars. I use a Mill factory picture as a silhouette. I find a reference showing children surrounded by bales of hanging cotton, and turn this idea into shreds of rags on strings as a surround. It becomes a symbol of the 19th century textile industry and can be lit in a variety of ways.
The Director and I are keen that we have ‘working’ MIll machines, for the children to use. I simplify the very complex machines I find at the Science Museum, with the help of the set builder. One of the boys escapes to join his Father who is fighting in the Napoleonic wars. We end at the battlefield, where the boy is killed. It has been exciting to work with such a large cast from a local community. Some have gone on to choose a career in theatre.
