Behind the scenes at ERT

At ERT they are incredibly lucky to have the brilliant Ed Ullyart as their set designer. After reading the play and talking to the director, Ed will creatively percolate on the many considerations of design - the period of the play, the number of locations, the traffic of the characters from scene to scene, scene transitions - in short, how best, both visually and practically, to serve the story that is to be told. These considerations will then become ideas sketched on paper, and then take shape as a working model.

Ed is currently working on the set for ERT's next in-house production The Night Season so we spoke to director Adrian Rawlins to find out what Ed’s brief is.

ADRIAN: “With The Night Season there are specific design problems that need to be solved. For example, as well as the Kennedy family’s home, they need to create a library and a pub but they don't want to have big scene changes with furniture brought on and off.  Ideally, they need the locations to be created simply and quickly so that the flow of the play is not interrupted. What is most fascinating and gratifying is that these problems are put on Ed's table and a few days later Ed comes back with an idea in the form of a sketch or model and the result is so simple, brilliant and effective’.

“The beauty of having a good designer is that through this collaboration, what previously were knotty visual conundrums suddenly become a little piece of design magic and the beauty of Ed is, not only does he come up with the magic, he then goes and builds it himself!”

Why not go and see the result!