GREEN THEATRE

SET AND COSTUME DESIGN

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no place like
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NO PLACE LIKE
Melbourne University - Union House Theatre 2011

Writer: Chris Summers
Director: Tom Gutteridge
Set & Costume Designer: Tanja Beer
Lighting Designer: Nicola Andrews
Photography: Vikk Shayen Wong

INFO:
Set in the familiar surrounds of suburbia Melbourne, across nearly four decades, No Place Like takes us to the realms of single-parent households, incestuous rape, familial vendetta, street violence, social apathy, free markets, discriminatory and destructive forces of conservative politics. The design featured a house façade and furniture almost made entirely out of recycled cardboard boxes. The cardboard wall was dismantled in ACT 2, to create an apocalyptic world which opened up the space and included a cardboard cityscape and rubble.

REVIEWS:

"Tanja Beer's creative set sweeps us from the haphazard and (card)boarded-up present, the scaffolding ruins of the future, to a quaint and surrealistic past. It feels like a character in its own right."

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"The Guild Theatre was completely transformed for this production with the type of set that draws the audience right into the action. It was immense in size, remarkably adaptable and when the insides were ripped out of the world it responded in kind. Quite simply the set designed by Tanja Beer deserves congratulations. It demonstrated creative vision, determination (to squeeze the design into the space) and worked tightly with the script to envelope the audience in the play. Who needs 3D cinema when you can be so involved with live theatre?"

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"Visually, the production cannot be more highly commended. Act Two's strobe-lit dreamscape in the blistering ruins of the apocalypse reminded me of a graphic novel come to life. Act One necessitated some conceptual abstraction and creative insight due to the myriad changes of location, and Set Designer Tanja Beer certainly delivered. The lens through which we glimpse this first hour of action is incredibly surreal- an interactive pop-up book constructed from recycled cardboard boxes, chipboard and scaffolding that manages to seamlessly accommodate the cast from a split-screen phone conversation in double-storey suburban windows, to a streetscape, the interior of a taxi and beyond. The muted palette of the set mimicked gesso on a canvas- a primarily functional backdrop upon which the colours of the foreground could come to life in boldest form."

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"The set, constructed haphazardly from recycled cardboard, is cleverly designed and somehow adds to the disquiet. Its effectiveness is prominent at the end of the first act, coming off second best in a confrontation with a sledgehammer."

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COPYRIGHT © TANJA BEER 2011