Yannis
Thavoris
Stage
Design
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Mansfield Park
Royal Northern College of Music, March 2020 / March 2023
Director
Stephen Barlow
Choreography
Bethan Rhys Wiliam
Lighting
Jason Taylor
v
ideos
The scheduled opening of the production in March 2020 was cancelled due to the outbreak of Covid-19. The photos and video-clips are from a partially finished stage rehearsal. The production was successfully remounted in March 2023, footage to come.
Reviews for the 2023 production
Barlow and Thavoris have created intimacy as much as possible even though they’re working on a big stage. The set is made in a circle, with grooves cut into it so that particular pieces of furniture can be swiftly moved into new positions from back to front or side to side, while other elements of the design are flown in from above, evoking not only the drawing room where much of the action takes place, but also a ship at sea, a trip to another country estate, a ballroom and the exterior of a garden grotto. (…)
The staging (…) has many delights: the trip by barouche to Mr Rushworth’s estate, and the “Music and Astronomy” chapter, for instance. For the ball scene, Bethan Rhys Wiliam has once again taught young singers how to dance adroitly, and some of the orchestra become an off-stage band, which was a nice touch. (The Arts Desk)
Thavoris’ set was based around elements of a circular neo-classical room into which extra elements could be moved to suggest gardens, grottoes and even a ship for Sir Thomas’ journey. Almost in the dead centre of the circle was Olivia Tringham’s Fanny, sitting at a small round table (evidently inspired by the one at Chawton where, amidst the disturbances of family life, Jane Austen wrote her novels). At the end of the opera, the link was directly made between Fanny’s writing and the novel Mansfield Park. (…) This was an engaging and ultimately moving afternoon in the theatre. (Opera Today)
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