EMMA BAILEY


PERFORMANCE DESIGNER

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WRITER // LESLEY HART 
DIRECTOR // POLINA KALININA
CHOREOGRAPHY // VICKI MANDERSON SET AND COSTUME// EMMA BAILEY

LIGHTING // MARK HENDERSON
SOUND // XANA
INTIMACY DIRECTOR // ADELAIDE WALDROP
PHOTOGRAPHY // BEN MILLAR COLE AND ROBBIE MCFADZEAN


ROYAL LYCEUM THEATRE, EDINBURGH

**WINNER OF CATS AWARD 2024 FOR BEST DESIGN**

“this is a sparky feminist cry for liberation” Mark Fisher The Guardian★★★★

“Everything from extravagant balls to stylised sex scenes are rendered with abstract edges, and focussed intensity. Where designer Emma Bailey keeps the costuming lavish and suitably period, the set is framed in steel columns whilst an ominous gold, spiky spine folded in ribbon hangs above. The rear wall slides back when required, revealing a glass-fronted cinematic space in which to set tableaus from snowbound railway stations to fields of golden wheat.” QUNITESSENTIAL REVIEW★★★★

“It’s a fluidity that matches the smooth opulence of the Russian high-class society that’s such a crucial factor in Tolstoy’s tale, evoked beautifully in Emma Bailey’s rich, colourful designs, and also the sometimes dream-like, soap-style comings and goings of its characters.” David Kettle The Arts Desk★★★★

(Women) dominate the narrative like a series of vivid human storm-centres, whirling across designer Emma Bailey’s gloriously open stage in their jewel-coloured dresses.” The Scotsman★★★★

“The other star of this production is the set. Designed by Emma Bailey, it’s a powerful, industrial, minimalist structure, allowing space for the free flowing of time and tales, moments of intense drama and freeze-frame reflections. The centrepiece is a foreboding spiky, screw-like chandelier dangling ominously over the scene of the crime – the bed.” Una Purdie The Edinburgh Reporter