My Mother Said I Never Should by Charlotte Keatley
Directed by Paul Robinson, performed at St James Theatre, April 2016
Costume Design/Associate Designer
Set designer - Signe Beckman
Lighting designer - Johanna Town
Keatley’s award-winning play is a moving exploration of the relationships between mothers and daughters and the consequences of breaking the most sacred taboo of motherhood.
In a text full of costume changes that have to span at least three decades for the four characters, my concept scaled back the complexity to create a seemingly simple design. Each character had a costume for each of the three acts, using layering and slight alterations in hairstyles to subtly hint at the changing years within the acts themselves. Staying with the grayscale palette of the set design for the opening and closing acts as the play floats in and out of the memories of the four generations of women, the second act in 1982 was in full colour, the only moment where we see the family together and perhaps starting to confront the reality of their interwoven secrets.
Photos by Savannah Photographic