MOTORTOWN
SET AND COSTUME DESIGN
Bute Theatre, Cardiff
Written by Simon Stephens
Directed by Michael Fentiman
Lighting Design by Nari Smith
Sound Design by Kieran Gough
Projection Design by Llyr Parri
Stage Manager - Amy Hales
Deputy Stage Manager - Kanoko Tobe
Photography by Simon Gough.
A graphic examination of an early millenium society. Through the episodic journey of a soldier returning from the Iraq war, and his blurring of the trauma of his war and home world.
Designing the play on four sides, with performers moving on raised walkways around their audience, aimed to physically enhance the perpetual movement of the protagonist as his mental state deteriorates. The space is 'real' in as far as the locations he visits are naturalistically realised, but also highly psychological, in being broken, disjointed, manipulated by the figures of fellow soldiers. We are fixed in place, only viewing through his eyes, the space acting as his physical stream of consiousness.