Creating a world on stage where plays

Quite often set design will not feature in the reviews, but it is an integral part of any production – after all, it is the first thing you see – and it's not just about choosing the right bits of furniture to put on the stage.

"There are various aspects to the job," says stage designer Francis O'Connor who created the impressive set for a revival of Arthur Miller's Death of a Salesman currently at the West Yorkshire Playhouse. "But essentially it is to create the physical world in which the writer's work can exist and in which the director and actors can play. It is about making a space that best serves the play and the production."

The designer works closely with the director, and sometimes, if it is a new play, the writer, discussing the vision they have of how the play should look. "Directors work in different ways," says O'Connor. "Some have a very definite vision of the setting, others less so, but generally we have a conversation about how we feel about the play and what the important visual aspects are. The design isn't just about how the set should look, though, it's

also about how the space is used and how the actors interact with it. I sketch out some ideas and then I make

a scale model, so that the director and the actors

have something tangible to work with."

Working with director

Sarah Esdaile on Death of Salesman, O'Connor created a magnificent set that fills the huge space of the Quarry Theatre. "I had never seen or read the play before," he says. "But it has an awful lot of what you might call visual baggage from the first and subsequent productions of it. I deliberately treated it like a new play and didn't look at any images. Instead, I read Miller's stage directions and interpreted them. It was exciting and challenging doing it that way."

What he came up with – a multi-levelled space that is both intimate and disconnected – speaks very eloquently to the audience about the complexities and conflicts within the lives we are witnessing. "I wanted to convey something about the fractured lives of the Loman family, the fact that this was a space where four people were living together, but not really communicating."

A powerful drama about the folly of pursuing the American Dream, the play also contains shifts in time, with the past and present merging as the central character, salesman Willy Loman, gradually unravels.

"It is a very impressionistic piece," says O'Connor. "And I wanted the design to reflect that too, so the set is made up of 'shards' or islands that can be pulled apart." That flexibility also allows for a truly spectacular coup de theatre at the end of the play which is incredibly moving and thought-provoking.

O'Connor thinks developments in new technology have made people more visually aware. "We live in a very visual age," he says. "The value of design is being acknowledged more. There have even been some exhibitions recently around the idea of the stage designer as an artist." Perhaps theatre design is finally getting the recognition it deserves.

n Death of a Salesman is at the West Yorkshire Playhouse, Leeds to May 29.