The aesthetic concept of a production requires set design, props design and costume design to work closely together. As we decided to set our production in the epoch of the Renaissance, set designer Ken Lawler focused on imitating Renaissance Veronese architecture.
The original Capuleti and Montecchi houses as seen in the photos below (all architecture photos: Ken Lawler) are of typical colours to be found in and around Verona. The yellow colour is often found with green window shutters as in the example above; the red bricks are inspired by the many brick buildings throughout Verona, such as the Castelvecchio above. The Scaliger pinnacles (photo to the left above), will also feature in our set.
The interior design for our set, such as Juliet’s bedroom, reflects the red bricolage of Capulet’s house. It also captures the wealth of the Capulet family, as the text refers to “rich Capulet,” and thus features golden stripes.
The aesthetic concept also reaches out to costume design. While the Capulets are portrayed in red, the Montagues’ colour is blue. The prince’s household features purple as their main colour. Our amazing costume designer, Claire Middleton, has put her sewing machine to good use, creating some stunning costumes for 25 actors. But, psssst, we won’t tell you all our secrets, come and see for yourselves in July.
Below you can see a typical Capulet costume and a typical Montague costume for this production (Photos: Dora Lutz).
As the play features a masked ball, a design for the masks was required. Inspiration was taken from Venetian masks, and we even made them sparkling.
Blogging Shakespeare & Theatre 