Setting Standards

Was it Bob Dylan who once sang “I pity the poor pilgrim”? Either way, I pity the “poor” set and costume designer in theatre, whose existence is too often reduced to a few lines in a review – and whose artistry is too often overlooked by audiences. In the case of Francis O’Connor such an oversight is criminal. He is, after all, “arguably the most prolific set and costume designer at the moment” to quote the press release for the Gaiety’s forthcoming production of Martin McDonagh’s The Lonesome West.

O’Connor’s other recent credits include Abbey productions such as Iphigenia at Aulis, Big Maggie and Tarry Flynn. He will also present his design for a new production of Tom Murphy’s Too Late For Logic, which will open at the Edinburgh Festival in August. And, yes, he, too, sometimes get pissed off at the way his work is overlooked.

“Of course it gets to me, it can be really frustrating,” he says.”Though, a lot of designers use the excuse ‘sometimes the best design is when it goes unnoticed because it is just providing a world for the piece and not calling attention to itself.’ And I agree with that, to a degree! Especially when my work isn’t noticed!”

More seriously Francis admits that, yes, it does still help when critics note that his set or costume designs helped “better interpret” a text. That, in effect is his raison d’être.

“That’s what I’m hoping my work does,” he explains.” I’m not just interested in creating a sculptural space that looks sexy, I’m interested in serving the piece most effectively. That’s why I do theatre design that is collaborative, based on text or music, or whatever, as opposed to doing sculpture or fine art. And that’s why I do an interpetive job more than anything else.”

Interpreting text comes more naturally to Francis O’Connor than it might to other theatre designers. Once an amateur actor, when he reads a play, or works with the director in relation to, say, set design, he’s working “from within that space” in a sense.

“I wanted to be an actor but I wasn’t very good, when I did drama at college,” he admits, laughing. “So I slipped into design via that route. Though I was always into art and design anyway, which was my strength to begin with. But another thing, in college, was that nobody else was interested in doing sets for amateur productions. So it fell into my hands at that point. But I do believe that having been even an amateur actor gives me a stronger connection to the text, and in terms of where actors and directors are coming from when they are talking to me. It was an understanding that was based purely on visual concepts.”

When it comes to the director and actors involved in The Lonesome West, this is a Druid Theatre production, with Garry Hynes directing and including Brian F. O’Byrne, Dawn Bradfield and Tom Murphy. And, not surprisingly, Francis O’ Connor’s love of theatre, at a textual level, means he finds it a “sheer delight” to work on McDonagh’s play. O’Connor did set and design for this play in its original incarnation and, prior to that, for the other two plays in the so-called Leenane Trilogy: The Beauty Queen Of Leenane and The Cripple Of Inishmaan. These are three of the most successful Irish plays in recent times, with The Beauty Queen last year smashing all box office records at the Gaiety. Francis O’Connor understands why.

“These are great plays,” he says. “I designed Beauty Queen first and hadn’t seen the rest of the trilogy. But it was such a fantastic play I loved it the minute I read it. The same is true of The Lonesome West. I adore the black humour, the fact that the play is so well crafted in terms of plotting, dramatic writing, the journey it makes – is just masterful. I read a lot of plays and some aren’t so great. And working on those would be, let’s say, less than inspiring. But when you’re working on a play by Martin McDonagh or, for that matter Tom Murphy, it sure helps.”

Better still, Francis O’Connor, who’s English and lives in London, loves the chance to work in Dublin. “Because there is just a passion there, about the work, and an excitement that I don’t really find anywhere else at the moment,” he explains. “I certainly think Irish theatre is a lot more passionate than British theatre right now.”