A Midsummer Night's Dream Stage Set

The stage set for the opera version of A Midsummer’s Night Dream by Benjamin Britten was an opportunity to fuse fantasy and reality in a modern urban setting. In order to achieve this, we designed a series of ramps, which add another dimension to the play’s theme and yet accommodate the various settings required. The challenge was to design a stage set that could flexibly accommodate the various settings required for the opera, which could be easily manoeuvred quickly and flexibly but could support the cast and their movements safely. We were interested in creating a stage set with the spatial qualities of the Elizabethan theatres common during Shakespeare’s time. The stage set pays homage to Shakespeare’s theatrical home, the Globe Theatre in London, where the galleries for the audience are vertically tiered and the audience is brought as close to the stage as possible for a more direct connection between the actors and the audience. We were also inspired by Renaissance architect, Andrea Palladio’s Teatro Olimpico in Vicenza, in which the stage set is a street which ramps up towards the back of the stage to create a false illusion of depth. Fundamental issues of scale, proportion and harmony were studied intensively in order arrive at our final design. Detailed drawings and models were drawn up and many studies were done in order to test the viability of various options against the requirements of the performance from the client, New Opera Singapore. Like Shakespeare’s enchanted forest populated by both humans and fairy folk, the stage set similarly straddles the divide between the real and surreal – a series of movable ramps are designed to fit together, giving a sense of false perspective so that what appears to be far away is much nearer in reality. This helps to bring the stage closer to the audience, so that even those seated right in front of the stage have a clear view of all the performers. The ramps are made of plywood construction on a welded steel structure. The movable ramps are fitted on rollers so that they can be pulled apart to form a variety of level and raised surfaces to accommodate different layers of action. Each ramp is done off site and then assembled on site. After the show ended, the contractors took back the stage set to reuse the materials. Issues such as height, gradient, safety, weight, flexibility and manoeuvrability were key criteria to ensure the successful execution of the opera.