Designer, Tomasin Cuthbert, shares how she brought the world of The Nutcracker to life.
What was your first reaction when you were asked to design The Nutcracker?
I was thrilled! The story of The Nutcracker is full of wonderful, classic theatrical moments – The Rat Queen and her army, the Sugar Plum Fairy – all great design challenges for me to get my teeth into.
Your work often combines storytelling and visual imagination – what inspired the design concept for this production?
The contrast between 19th century England and the wonderful dreamlike spaces we enter into was my main inspiration. I wanted to create contrast between the constricted, formal, rule bound world of Lady Euwella and her house, with something more liberated, magical, and spacious.
How did you approach blending traditional elements of The Nutcracker with this new adaptation’s folk-influenced style?
The design is less of a blending, and more of a playing with contrasts. Each world heightens the existence of the other through the colours and visual language. I wanted the dreamlike worlds of Sugar Plum Fairy Kingdom and Melancholia to have a surreal quality, not rooted in any particular time period. The Sugar Plum Fairy Kingdom is inspired by vintage circus and clown, while Melancholia is more punk. The worlds have been born out of the imagination of Clara, who is a girl with a more contemporary view of her identity as a woman.
Can you tell us about some of the materials, textures, or colours audiences might notice in the set and costumes?
I love working with textiles and have used them a lot in this design. Rhyannan Hall is a textile artist I have collaborated with for many years, and her expertise in using dyes to create vibrant colourful surfaces, as well as more subtle expressions, will hopefully be a feature audiences will enjoy.
What has been the most rewarding or challenging part of bringing this world to life on stage?
I enjoy building the costume schemes for productions such as this one. It involves working with costume stores across the country, buying from charity shops and online, making things, and embellishing garments with paint or trim or beading. I particularly enjoy working with makers who help create some of the beautiful things you will see on stage and working alongside people who bring their own unique gifts to the show.
You’ve collaborated with theatres across the UK – how does creating a Christmas show for Taunton Brewhouse compare?
Most of the previous work has also been self produced, so I am usually wearing multiple hats – performing, designing, and producing. It’s a real treat to be able to focus on just the design, and working locally to where I live is also very special. I love Somerset and making work for the people of the South West is my personal passion!
If audiences take one feeling or message away from the visual world you’ve created, what would you like it to be?
I hope that people come away feeling like they have been on a magical dreamlike journey, and then brought back to the real world, which has, in their absence, become a little bit more twinkly.
The Nutcracker runs until Sunday 28 December. Don’t miss out!
Photography by Jack Offord
