The Society of British Theatre Designers

A lightweight musical comedy gently addressing the perils of human cloning which met with very positive initial audience reaction and its destiny for several more outings in theatres across the UK during the year was surprising, albeit welcome and gratifying. Design-wise the show retained the initial design thathad been propelled by expediency and nil budget. Any money had rightly enough been prioritised on sound reinforcement to achieve the best possible quality of music. The national tour in the autumn of 2001 had the services of the country's leading theatre sound company, Autograph, to ensure very high quality of musical projection. Three boxes of differing heights (which I quickly built the day before the Wimbledon Studio Theatre showcase) served as the set and the costuming was restricted to a monochrome palette of all-black for the first half: current corruption and double dealing, followed by all white for the second half: post cloning and the advent of newly created perfection! I also pushed for an all white stage space in all venues following the initial performance in Wimbledon where it was unavoidably the ubiquitous (and depressing) black of the small studio theatre world in the UK. After many more performances than anticipated, and travels to Edinburgh and Athens, the boxes survived intact. The photograph is of the show as shown at the Bloomsbury Theatre.