Tuning in…
Tuning in…
Castaway
1 appearance
Stage designer known for his work in theatre.
On the island
Eight records
Symphony No. 1 in B-flat minorFavourite
Philharmonia Orchestra, conducted by Bernard Haitink
I mean actually I love Walton, I always have, and if I had a chance I would have choose many others of his, but I had to plump for one and this would be it.
Variations on a Theme of Paganini
Radio-Symphonie-Orchester Berlin, conducted by Ferenc Fricsay
I got this record a long, long time ago, and I've rather I found it very exciting.
Bavarian Radio Symphony Orchestra, conducted by Rafael Kubelík
Well actually I heard it on one of your programmes years and years ago and I loved it then and I went out and bought it
She inspires my next record, which is uh Tim Hardin.
Serenade for Tenor, Horn and Strings (Nocturne)
Peter Pears, Dennis Brain and the Boyd Neel String Orchestra, conducted by Benjamin Britten
I choose this because I've always loved it. I've loved actually Britain, but again, it was very hard to choose which, and this happened to be the one that I like, I suppose, the best.
French National Radio Orchestra and Chorus, conducted by Georges Prêtre
I kept on hearing this on the plane when I was doing a show in in New York. And uh I was very taken with it.
In conversation
Presenter asks
0:34Do you think you have the right temperament to be cast away alone?
Theatre designers tend to be hidden away in sort of attics and so maybe one can almost down one's own company up to a point. I work an awful lot with background music. God forbid I shouldn't really talk about the classics like that, but one does actually work an awful lot with music as a background and a solace to what you're doing.
Presenter asks
3:20What were you going to be [when you went to Bryanston]?
Thinking of becoming a doctor and following, obviously, in father's footsteps. But I was dissuaded by him quite early on, so I never got I mean I got to the stage of doing all the requisite sciences and cutting up all the the rabbits and the dogfish and everything else, but uh he decided that it was really not the thing that a a young lad should follow. And so I was sort of cast adrift and I then had to try and find something to do.
Presenter asks
4:18Whose work did you admire among designers?
Well, certainly when I became a little more discerning and understanding of Jocelyn Herbert, and of course Sean Kenny, who was flourishing.
The keepsakes
The book
The Third Policeman / The Poor Mouth
Flann O'Brien
I'd like again, rather sneakily to get my favourite author bound in one enormous volume, and that would be Flanner Brown, and to try and get as many of his books into that one enormous bound volume.
The luxury
Boxed set of Walton's works conducted by the composer
I want to be cheeky and in fact take more records. And if it were possible to have more Walton, I'd take more Walton.
Presenter asks
9:58Which productions there during your year [at the Royal Court] do you remember?
Well, I did the first production of Saved and … That obviously was exciting because of course the theater sensor was still going strong and we were Very near the age I don't think we had to convert it into a club, I'm sure we didn't, but there I know there was tremendous problems about stoning a baby on stage
Presenter asks
25:59How soon does the lighting designer become involved?
Well usually one can get the lighting designer in very early on. I mean he wouldn't have done any ideas about how he wants to light the show. But uh if you've presented a problem That needs their advice, whether it be projections, whether it be a certain lighting effect, or whatever. Then it's advisable to talk to your Leitenzeiner very early on.
“I had a wonderful experience of actually designing a show for my mother, who was directing a piece, and we fell out and so it never happened.”
“For certainly a Southerner, and I suppose, quote, a middle-class Southerner, it was an eye-opener. I mean, I was really was taken aback in the conditions they were working in. And that was one of the reasons, I suppose, that we put in such detail into the whole uh atmosphere of the said, because one was very uh, I suppose, disturbed by what we'd seen up north.”
“I've got to get bigger and bigger and bigger. No, I uh I no, not at all. I just love the challenge that comes up each time one does a production. and inevitably that becomes your only love until it's gone and you then move on to the next one is terribly fickle and you know yeah really and truly one doesn't love any particular production more than any other Except for the one you're working on, which you think is the only thing in the world.”