Es Devlin’s Space and Light

Overview

Interview/profile of stage designer Es Devlin covering her process, influences, collaborations, and five core components: Space, Light, Darkness, Scale, and Time.

Identity and Early Path

• Name pronounced "Ez," short for Esmeralda; uses neutral "Ez" professionally.
• Began in theatre design; found belonging among model-makers; won Linbury Award.
• Early major commission: Harold Pinter’s Betrayal at the National Theatre.
• Initial work in small venues (Bush Theatre), innovating with minimal budgets and hands-on making.

Creative Process and Collaboration

• Projects start with conversation at a white table; Ez sketches during talks.
• Iterative model-making with teams; multiple meetings over months or years.
• Aligns with collaborators across opera and pop (e.g., Beyoncé, Kanye, U2, Wagner).
• Emphasis on asking "why" for every visual device to ensure emotional legitimacy.

Core Components

• Space: Defines the work; boundaries provoke transgression and expansion.
• Light: Tool for shaping perception; mirrors and two-way mirrors used to control/refocus light.
• Darkness: Shared anticipation; collective focus akin to ancient rituals at dusk.
• Scale: Manipulates human-object relations; models and staging scale drive impact.
• Time: Designs for experience over duration; artifacts only “work” through time in performance.

Selected Works and Techniques

• Faith Healer (2016): Rain as curtain and mood; solved no-wings stage changes; audience felt illuminated raindrops’ emotion.
• Macbeth: Split-box mirror to reveal/deny Banquo’s ghost; psychological metaphor.
• The Nether: Mirror and object placement to undermine spatial trust; implied glass box.
• Louis Vuitton shows: Two-way mirrors with LED faces floating in expanded space.
• Chanel project: Mirror maze analogizing rapid decisions; collapsing floor simulating memory’s temporal drop.
• Don Giovanni: Revolving, reconfigurable doors; “ever-changing architecture” solving corridor logistics.
• Parsifal: Rotating castle; universal symbols and primal tunnel reactions.
• Adele: Makeup artist painted scenic elements for scale-accurate close-ups.
• U2: Journey from square to circle; home to world; central light block in circular ring.
• Beyoncé Formation: Rotating cube with light slit; broadcast metaphor tied to childhood televangelist memory.

Pop, Performance, and Media Shifts

• Early band design subverted “hunched band” layout with boxes, mirrors, front screen; overlooked exit needs.
• Kanye collaboration sparked by seeing earlier boxed/mirror work.
• Phone cameras changed documentation; shows designed for ubiquitous, square-framed capture.
• Artists now experience their shows via audience images; affects design choices.

Influences and Family

• Childhood model town in Rye linked miniatures to storytelling; desire to both preserve and disrupt.
• Parents’ resourcefulness (junk-shop making, crochet, carpentry) echoed in Ez’s making ethos.
• Chagall windows at All Saints, Tudeley: Color becoming light; internal jewel vs external blackness; metaphor for pre-show darkness.

Philosophy and Psychology

• Designs spaces where poetry happens; lyrics analyzed to map imagery and support text.
• Seeks universal, primitive responses (tunnels, darkness) to create shared emotional reactions.
• Exhibitions require intrinsic worth without star presence; risk embraced.
• Presentation as pursuit: showing necessitates searching and finding.

Process Mapping and Craft

• Hamlet: Page-by-page temporal maps; viewer-feeling drives shading and sequencing.
• Models/alternatives presented to directors; rejected ideas inform future work.
• Not all technical systems understood by designer; beauty can precede mechanism.

Ephemeral Nature and Memory

• Theatre’s impermanence: works vanish after days to years; persist in memory only.
• Singular performances (e.g., Cumberbatch, Beyoncé, Kanye) exist as “you had to be there.”

Action Items

• Ship rotating cube piece to Belgium for the Belgian Trilogy Exhibition.

Decisions

• Use rain curtain in Faith Healer to solve scene changes and evoke melancholy.
• Adopt rotating, reconfigurable door system for Don Giovanni.
• Design for square-framed captures acknowledging social media documentation.

Selected Projects Summary

Notable Process Notes

• Meetings per project: 5 to 25; durations from 3 months to 3 years.
• Designs iterated via hand drawings, models, and director reviews.
• Some concepts rejected (e.g., LED man for Kanye) yet inform later work.