Designing the World of Do Not Go Gentle

Our design for Do Not Go Gentle aims to create a suggestive space where memory, imagination and lived experience constantly overlap.

The set appears minimal and monochromatic. An expanse of white across walls and floor contains mirrored walls, extending the horizon and landscape beyond the physical limits of the theatre. Reflections of characters and audience fracture perspective, creating a sense of disorientation about what is real, what is remembered and what exists only within the mind. Like the play itself, the world is never fixed; it is constantly shifting between external journey and internal landscape.

Suspended on masts, simple white gauzes transform as the journey unfolds. They simultaneously evoke sails, mountain peaks, tents, bedsheets and drifting snow, responding to light, movement, and imagination. Their ambiguity allows the space to move fluidly between places and moments without ever settling into a single reality.

The costumes follow a similar trajectory. Our characters begin as explorers, wrapped in practical expedition clothing based on historical imagery.

As the journey continues, these protective layers give way to contemporary, everyday dress. Colour and pattern gradually emerge, spilling into what was once an almost entirely monochromatic world.

Julian Starr’s sound design and Alan John’s composition are integral to the architecture of the production. Sweeping blizzards, shifting shadows and shafts of light continually reshape the space, moving from an elemental vastness to the intimate rhythms of memory.

Together, the design elements seek to create a world that feels both epic and deeply personal, allowing the physical landscape and the emotional landscape to exist simultaneously.

— Simone