Wizard of Oz at Sheffield Crucible was a challenge. The text is packed with expectations. The theatre was in thrust, with no real wing space, no flying, very limited access from off-stage, challenging sight lines, all the usual limitations of a rep theatre budget and of course, an audience with a vivid memory of the spectacular film.

The nature of the beast was that the solution would inevitably inform all other aspects of the performance, particularly choreography. My solution was to keep almost everything within the stage space; much of Oz being created using the debris of Kansas. A raised disc created a surrounding trench for limited storage of props, performers could come and go from the performance space with ease. Dorothy’s Kansas house had a low tech ‘explosion’, dismantling the house and propelling Dorothy and her bed spinning into centre stage. The surrounding disc of stage was hinged and lifted to create a vertical plane, the underside a collage of woods, metallics and light boxes; the exposed sub-floor revealed panels of technicolour foliage. The yellow brick road later appeared as a series of ‘wooden’ light boxes.