Royal Exchange Theatre - Studio

Manchester

UK

The play consists of three monologues with different experiences of Iraq.

The set was kept to minimal objects as the director wanted the power of their stories to speak for themselves. This was echoed in the lighting and sound design. The main backdrop to the stage was a lightbox which enabled the designer to mix colours. Each character was identified by a colour and then the scene changes merged these colours as one actor came off and another on. In the same way I wanted to set the scene through music and sounds during the scene changes as any spot effects or underscoring would have taken away from these performances. I found sounds that I thought would tell the story of each character and used them as a bed under a musical motif for each character. These were created from a mixture of electronic samples and acoustic instruments. In the same way that the light box shifted colour the sounds had to merge and flow together in the same way. 

The song at the end is an Iraqi lullaby about bringing peace to Iraq, I recorded the actress who played Nehrjas singing it.

Claire Windsor

claire.windsor[at]royalexchange.co.uk