5 minutes with designer Katie Sykes
30 Aug 2024
It's always really exciting returning to work on a show that you love...
I was so pleased when I heard that we would be touring Wonder Boy as I knew there was an audience out there that would love it.
The original design for Wonder Boy was a brilliant challenge. Ross Willis (the writer) gave us a script full of amazing cinematic images. Although Sally and I knew that many of them would not be possible in a literal sense, we loved the energy and surreal nature of them.
So I knew the show would need a set that could "house" a number of different locations, include a good surface for the creative captioning and give room for the big visual set pieces.
Sonny has an extraordinary world going on in his head and a lot of which is triggered by comics and graphic novels. I decided the design should reflect the bold block colour style of that.
The costumes are again highly influences by graphic novels. I knew the captioning would be brightly coloured and so the costumes needed to match that and still remain believable for the more naturalistic scenes. It's a fine line between the heightened quality of the show and the moments of real truth and honesty.
The process of designing a remount is very different to working on it first time round. There is the relief that the design and the show itself works, however there is also the pressure to make sure that it looks as good as it did first time round .
Often in the first week of rehearsals we spend a lot of time just trying to remember why things are like they are! For example - why is there an extra pocket in that jacket or how did we hide that knife onstage. There are also always problems that need to be resolved that perhaps didn’t get the time they needed before, so it is great to revisit those and find a better solution.
We are remaking the Shakespeare wigs so that they look even better and will make the very quick changes much easier .
The show didn’t tour last time so certain adjustments have to be made to the set so it’s easier to break down and put back together again .
We also have to make sure all the costumes and props have the appropriate boxes and cases so that they can travel safely.
I hope you enjoy watching it as much as I’ve loved designing it!
Katie Sykes
