A stage adaptation of one of our best-loved children’s books will soon be performed at the Marina Theatre in Lowestoft.
Guess How Much I Love You sees Little and Big Nutbrown Hare leap off the page and onto the stage in this magical journey through the seasons.
The performances take place at 1.30pm on March 27 and at 10.30am and 4.30pm on March 28.
Watch and join in as the characters settle down after a bedtime story and re-awaken to discover the delights and colours of each season as they compete to measure their love for each other in this timeless loveable story – based on the much-loved children’s book by Sam McBratney.
Explore this playful story of love and nature as it unfolds on stage through puppets, live music and play for children aged 3 and up.
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We caught up with Richard Evans, costume and set designer, to find out more about his role.
Richard trained at the Royal Scottish Academy of Music and Drama (now the Royal Conservatoire of Scotland) where he won the Dean of Drama’s Julia Stewart Award. He now works across the UK and Internationally designing drama, dance, musical theatre and opera. He has designed international, national and regional tours, repertory theatre and stand-alone productions.
Richard’s recent work includes Love Song and Little Red and The Wolf (Dundee Rep), Democracy (Rapture, UK Tour) and Cinderella (High Time Opera) and of course Guess how Much I Love You, while his set design for the hit musical Avenue Q has toured the UK since 2014.
Alongside his theatre work, he has also worked extensively in TV and Film, as a buyer, art director and set dresser, including the BBC One series Justice, Moving On and Secrets and Words, the Children’s BAFTA-nominated Make A Musical and Bill – the first feature film of the incredibly popular Horrible Histories franchise for BBC Films.
Tell us a bit about your day to day in terms of working on the set and costume design for GHMILY, where do you start!?
The process always begins with the script, or in this case the script and the books! We were lucky enough to be able to develop GHMILY through workshops with the full creative team and a cast of actors. It meant that the whole process was fun and organic -something that I hope can be felt on stage!
I took these initial ideas and went away and developed a 1:25 scale model of the set and drew up designs for the costumes and puppets. From then I work closely with the talented set builders, painters, prop and costume makers to develop the technical aspects of the production and ensure that the vision Anna (the director) and myself had can be realised on stage.
Where do you start in terms of drawing your inspiration?
Usually I would pool ideas from a huge and varied range of sources – from art, photography, movies, but for this production the inspiration was straight from Anita Jeram’s beautiful illustrations (with some added ideas from the natural world around us). It was a brilliant challenge to bring the drawings off the page and into 3-dimensions on stage.
What can people expect to see in terms of Costume and Set in GHMILY?
People can expect to see a fun, vibrant, energetic and playful interpretation of their favourite illustrations from the GHMILY books! I have tried to remain as faithful as possible while still adding a little theatrical spin…
What is your favourite costume in GHMILY?
Although the hares are amazingly soft and fluffy, I really love Mother Nature’s costume. She could really be whatever we wanted her to be and I loved playing with the idea that she was an artist who had created this world and is about to take you by the hand and lead the audience through the story.
What are the challenges in designing costumes for actors who will be playing animals?
Heat and feet! How can we make a full suit of fur which isn’t going to make our cast pass out from over-heating and how can we represent over-sized hare feet while still allowing them to move freely about the stage. After a lot of trial and error I think we made it work – although the actors may tell you another story….
You have had a very varied career designing sets and costumes across TV and the theatre in a number of genres, what has been your favourite project to date and why?
I don’t know that I could choose a favourite, but really I like working on anything that has a ‘heart’ to it. Whether it is a musical, opera or a straight piece of drama if you can find the meaning behind the story then you are always on to a winner!
Full: £15, Concession/Privilege Card: £13, Schools and Group Rate £9.75.
To book, call the box office on 01502 533200 or CLICK HERE.
