Designer Bunny Christie created an ambiguous, white-tiled structure that could be a swimming pool, the inside of a TV or a jumbo pill as the set for the play People, Places and Things, which tells the story of a recovering addict.
Originally debuting at London's National Theatre in 2015, writer Duncan Macmillan's play has returned to the city's Trafalgar Theatre, with Denise Gough reprising her main role as Emma ? a quick-witted but disillusioned actor admitted to rehab for drug and alcohol abuse.
Bunny Christie designed the set for People, Places and Things
Christie, who has designed productions including London's currently showing Guys and Dolls, created the set to echo the character's "dislocation with reality".
"It's about Emma's process of getting clean," the designer told Dezeen at the West End theatre, where People, Places and Things runs until 10 August. The play's centrepiece is a large, soft-edged cuboid-like structure clad in gleaming white tiles and framed with LED strip lighting. The particular shape was chosen to reference the familiar, albeit unsettling appearance of pills.
"Jeremy [Herrin, the play's director] and I talked about having a tiled space that felt like you could hose down ? like it could just be wiped clean," explained Christie. "There's something metaphorical in that."
"I guess it's also a bit like a TV screen or a swimming pool," added the designer.
The scenography was created to echo the shape ...