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UAL Research Online

Costume and Set Design for 'Pericles'

Meller, Fred (2003) Costume and Set Design for 'Pericles'. [Art/Design Item]

Type of Research: Art/Design Item
Creators: Meller, Fred
Description:

'Pericles' was one of two productions (with 'Timon of Athens') which were the result of a collaboration between The Royal Shakespeare Company and Cardboard Citizens theatre company. They were presented as part of both the Complete Works Festival and the Belfast International Festival. Fred Meller was the costume and set designer for both productions.

In 'Pericles', Shakespeare’s themes of loss and reunion have been directly experienced by many of the members of Cardboard Citizens and were shared during the improvisational production process with RSC actors. They in turn shared their experience of Shakespeare’s language. As in all Meller's collaborations with Cardboard Citizens, his role as designer involved a deeply integrated contribution to the productions as a whole beyond the normal role assumed for a stage designer.

'Pericles', performed in a vast supermarket distribution warehouse off the Old Kent Road, challenged all the conventions of theatre performance, even those conventions established as site-specific theatre. Movement through ten spaces, each the size of half a football pitch gave the audience the experience of a journey into different worlds.

The audience became cast themselves as asylum seekers, sitting at individual desks to fill out the government’s asylum form. They then accompanied Pericles through three storms and eventual reunion with his family. They created the storms out of a washing machine space with an industrial container as a ship and wet red cross parcels as the sea.

Other Contributors:
RoleName
Other (theatre company)Cardboard Citizens,
Other (theatre company)Royal Shakespeare Company,
Your affiliations with UAL: Colleges > Central Saint Martins
Date: 22 July 2003
Related Websites: http://www.csm.arts.ac.uk/51914.htm, http://www.cardboardcitizens.org.uk/p2s25.html, http://www.britishtheatreguide.info/news/pericles.htm
Related Websites:
Related Publications: United States Institute of Stage Technology exhibition of World Stage Design Toronto 2005 (ISBN 1-933348-01-1) page 151., Exhibition Catalogue for ‘Collaborators’ (supported by the Arts Council of England) ISBN 978-0-9529309-4-5, pp 14-19.
Locations / Venues:
LocationFrom DateTo Date
Southwark, London.22 July 200310 August 2003
Date Deposited: 04 Dec 2009 00:05
Last Modified: 15 Jan 2014 09:07
Item ID: 1392
URI: https://ualresearchonline.arts.ac.uk/id/eprint/1392

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