A Slow Burlesque
Created and Performed by Freya Silas Finch
A Slow Burlesque tells a story of transformation told through absurd comedy, physical theatre, burlesque and many, many, many costume changes.
Role
Set Design
Year
2024
Presented by
Silo Theatre
Venue
Basement, Mainspace
Creative Team
Performance - Freya Silas Finch
Director - Jo Randerson
Dramaturgy - Sophie Roberts
Costume Design - Kirsty Cameron, Tautahi Subritzky
Lighting Design - Bekky Boyce
Sound Design - Cello Forrester
Choreography - Josie Archer
Photographs courtesy of Andi Crown
A Slow Burlesque was such a special show to collaborate on. It was the first ever production I’d worked on where the design was costume led. It was really exciting to rethink costume as set. I loved collaborating closely with Freya, Jo, Kirsty and Tau to discover new ways for costume to become set. We explored lots of ways in which costumes could live on stage. I mean this is both a practical level, but also conceptually. If we think of each piece of costume as a character, how do they inhabit the space before and after the performer puts them on and “animates” them. Like putting a shoe at the foot of a stool, or draping a shirt on the floor in such a way that it looks like its wearer has magically disappeared.
Another key aspect of the design was to bring to life the world of a fading burlesque theatre. Being at the Basement Theatre, meant that a lot of my work was done for me, as the space already has such rich character and history. All I had to do was wrangle the seating configuration to expose all of its backstage glory, and hunt down some old Axminster carpet (which is quite tricky nowadays!) and dye it red.
