Let's Talk About Sets: Kitty Callister on Silent Opera's Vixen

I have worked with director Daisy Evans a number of times in recent years, so when she approached me to design a new version of The Cunning Little Vixen for her company, Silent Opera, a company that prides itself on coming up with innovative and contemporary productions. I knew that it would unlikely to be a traditional version of the classic Leoš Janáček libretto.

Silent Opera offers a blurring of the boundary between audience member and cast. Each audience member is provided with a set of headphones, allowing you to feel almost inside the opera as it is performed around you. The singers and instrumentalists all perform live alongside an electronic soundscape and pre-recorded orchestra which are all mixed together and delivered directly into your head. You don't miss a single note, breath or word of the drama as it unfolds before your very eyes.

The freedom of the headphones allows you to move around the action and feel a part of the narrative, inviting you to pull up a chair and watch from anywhere. You are also able to take your headphones off and listen to the naked opera voice inside the environmental soundscape. This is truly an innovative opera experience, as you can choose what you want to listen to, how you want to experience the drama and where to see it from.

So with this the basis for how the piece will be set and performed it presents a very exciting design challenge for me. The design needed to be site specific and created for The Vaults theatre which is particularly unique as its located underneath Waterloo Station.

Designing for a space like The Vaults can be quite difficult as it’s a vast set of tunnels.The demands of site-specific work require a high level of detail and features. As the audience will be immersed in the space it's like designing for an art installation. You need to create an 'experience' that the audience can lose themselves in. That means the look and feel of the entire space needs to tie into the themes of the piece. The lighting is also integral, and the entirety of the space needs dressing. You can't get away with leaving a corner unattended to – it'll be noticed as the audience walk past it!

My process with Daisy is fairly collaborative and of course is led by the damp, dark atmosphere that a location like The Vaults can offer. Our concept for this Vixen sees a young girl living on the streets of London. We've divided the tunnel into two main spaces – a foster home and the dangerous urban environment of the streets. I’ve looked to create a performance space that is a set-cum-auditorium with a mixture of blankets, bean bags, sofas and sleeping bags. Wherever you choose to sit, you won't be separated in the dark of an auditorium, it hopefully should make you feel as if you’re one of the inhabitants of the Vixen’s world, right up against the drama.

Although we want it to feel like the audience can move about without restriction, the design has to take into consideration the flow of the piece and the main playing areas for the singers. In a large tunnel with 150 audience members seated, there are obvious issues of sight-lines. The design contains a few key structures that can act as a focus for the action and in conjunction with the lighting design by Jake Wiltshire, can lead the audience through the story, drawing the eye through subtle changes of lighting and movement.

By Kitty Callister

Vixen runs at The Vaults from 26 May to 10 June.