Written by Kendall Fever
With – Nadine Garner, Max McKenna, Louisa Mignone, Karl Richmond
Melbourne Theatre Company
Role: Set and Costume Design
Director: Hannah Goodwin
Assistant Director: Jennifer Sarah Dean
Set Design: Jacob Battista
Costume Design: Jacob Battista
Lighting Design: Amelia Lever-Davidson
Sound Design and Composition: Kelly Ryall
Photos: Pia Johnson
Quotes from Reviews:
As Anna begins to spin out of control, so does Jacob Battista’s clever set. The suburban kitchen setup looks deceptively simple, but it soon becomes an obstacle or a maze giving us a glimpse into Anna’s inner state. – Time Out – Ashleigh Hastings
Jacob Battista’s ingenious set – a series of gunmetal grey interlocking shapes that spin on a central axis – is both highly functional and emotionally impactful. It suggests anodyne domestic and medical spaces, frosty and soulless, but it transforms, with the help of Amelia Lever-Davidson’s excellent lighting, into something sinister and overwhelming. – The Guardian – Tim Byrne
Jacob Battista’s excellent set design evolves in many fascinating ways, made up of several wall components, set inside a frame, that pivot freely from a mid-point. Goodwin has Anna in command of the settings when she is unmedicated and unable to control them when she is not. – Kris Weber – Theatre Matters
Jacob Battista’s mesmerising set design consists of movable pieces that are mechanically operated or manipulated by the cast, so the same locations can be seen from different perspectives while also creating cold and clinical ambiguous spaces. Paired with Hannah Goodwin’s direction where characters walk behind, underneath and around the pieces, the stage can be interpreted as an extension of the uncertainty and confusion occurring inside Anna’s mind. – Myron My – My Melbourne Arts
Jacob Battista’s set, lit by Amelia Lever-Davidson, initially feels like an IKEA-perfect staged apartment – until it moves. Its wooden floor and clean benches become hospital, doctors’ offices and houses that are moved in and around like a maze. Those in the maze can’t see or feel it moving for all the clear space, but everyone watching is waiting for a crash. – Anne Marie Peard – Australian Arts Review
