Epic Dickens’ tales have been the name of the game recently for the in-house designers Autograph in England. They have been involved in the new productions of Nicholas Nickleby and Two Cities at Chichester Festival Theatre in West Sussex, and Salisbury Playhouse in Salisbury, respectively.
Nick Lidster and Matt Mckenzie designed the David Edgar version of one of Charles Dickens’ greatest novels, which formed part of the 2006 Season at The Chichester Festival Theatre. Broken down into two parts, the captivating story was told in a marathon six-and-a-half hours of wonderful ensemble theatre, accompanied by new music written by Matthew Scott.
Not content with this ample workload, Nick Lidster also found time to design Noel Coward’s Tonight at 8:30 in Chichester’s Minerva Theatre, the studio space at the Festival Theatre.
Meanwhile in Salisbury, Chris Full has designed The Playhouse’s new musical production of Two Cities by Howard Goodall, famous for his composition of The Hired Man in 2003. This production is based on Charles Dickens’ novel A Tale of Two Cities. The production runs in Salisbury for four weeks and there are hopes of a transfer into the West End.