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Halla Groves-Raines
Time and the Conways by J B Priestley AND Knives in Hens by David Harrower

Author: Halla Groves-Raines

Performance space: Circomedia Bristol

Theatre company/company produced for: Bristol Old Vic Theatre School

Month & year of original production: March 2012

Description of items intended for exhibition:
Model
Drawing

Project description:
Time and the Conways is set in the same room in 1919 and 1937 is based on J W Dunne's theory of time, which suggests that all time is happening simultaneously and that linear time is only the way in which human consciousness is able to perceive this. The director Jenny Stephens and I wanted the period nature of the play to be very real but for the abstract, metaphsyical and magical to come in from elsewhere. This was achieved by designing a period arts and crafts drawing room which would break apart with bits of wall pushed on trucks by members of the cast dressed as Priestley. The cracks in the walls represent the cracks in time and in the family itself and the exposed lath alluded to the blitz and depression to come. There were miniature versions of the family house dotted around in the darkness behind the room which were lit at different times to symbolise the many multiples of time, the importance of scale in Dunne's theory and the housing boom in the inter war years.

Artform:
Set Design

Designers:
Set designer: Halla Groves-Raines
Costume designer: Faye Bradley
Lighting designer: Matthew Coombes
Director/choreographer: Jenny Stephens

Image gallery

Halla Groves-Raines - Time and the Conways by J B Priestley AND Knives in Hens by David Harrower

Time and the Conways Act I
Time and the Conways Act I photograph taken by Graham Burke

Halla Groves-Raines - Time and the Conways by J B Priestley AND Knives in Hens by David Harrower

Time and the Conways Act II
Time and the Conways Act II photograph taken by Graham Burke

Halla Groves-Raines - Time and the Conways by J B Priestley AND Knives in Hens by David Harrower

Time and the Conways model 1:25
Time and the Conways model 1:25 photograph taken by Halla Groves-Raines

Halla Groves-Raines - Time and the Conways by J B Priestley AND Knives in Hens by David Harrower

Knives in Hens by David Harrower director Iain MacDonald photograph Graham Burke
Knives in Hens by David Harrower deals with a love triangle in an undefined rural place and a young woman's struggle for knowledge which eventually ends in murder. The director, Iain MacDonald and I agreed we would have one set that would work for all the indoor and outdoor scenes as the play moves so quickly. We wanted to keep the set and costume simple as the language in the play is so vivid. What struck me was the colour and texture of the language and characters, the dark tbc...

Halla Groves-Raines - Time and the Conways by J B Priestley AND Knives in Hens by David Harrower

Knives in Hens 2 photograph by Graham Burke
dark, muddy ploughman, the enlightened, clean, floury miller and the woman in the middle who eventually brings about a brutal and bloody murder. The set was made up of a wooden floor and wooden uprights, staggered to give depth in a very small space and which could represent a forest, cottage walls or stable doors. These were given a textured finish to look as if they were coated in white flour with a large mud dark stain in one corner.

Halla Groves-Raines - Time and the Conways by J B Priestley AND Knives in Hens by David Harrower

Knives in Hens by David Harrower photograph by Graham Burke
Set and Costume Designer Halla Groves-Raines director Iain MacDonald Lighting designer Owain Davies Sound designer Fiona Whent
Knives in Hens took place at the Alma Tavern Theatre, Bristol in May 2012 and then transfered to the Greenwich Theatre London in July 2012. It was produced by Bristol Old Vic Theatre school. I would like to display a 1:25 model, production photos and drawings.

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