NIALL MCKEEVER
SOME VOICES
Written by Joe Penhall
Drama Centre Production in repertoire with The Strip
Platform Theatre, December 2017
Directed by Harry Burton
Set Designer: Niall McKeever
Costume Designer: Riley Burkes
Lighting Designer: Alex Hopkins
Costume Supervisor: Denisa Dumitrescu
Design Assistant: Alys Whitehead
Photography by Mark Duffield
Set in 1994, Some Voices was the response of British playwright Joe Penhall to the Conservatives mental health policy - ‘Care in the Community’. Large numbers of the institutionalised, mentally ill were reintroduced to society where unprepared families were expected to cope.
When Ray finds himself increasingly frustrated by a maladjusted community and an illness he'll never control, events spiral towards inevitable tragedy.
The spare aesthetic of the design helped in portraying a potent symbol of urban alienation, loneliness and poverty as well as being able to swing between entrapment, liberation and false sense of security.
Projected images and video on to floating venetian blinds and the permanent mesh structures we felt was an effective way to add depth of west London on stage - abstracted and distorted imagery through the lens of character Ray.
Ray's descent (video design sample)
Assisted by Alys Whitehead
