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

Using Format