Scenographer Magda Willi, who overseas the stage design of the Gorki Theater in Berlin and other freelance projects, talks about the challgenes of working with limited equipment and gives us a glimpse of some sets. Check out the Swiss Design Awards exhibiton to see her stunning stage set for the Young Vic in London.

Which priorities and / or concerns do you currently face in your practice and how do you face them? In other words – which critical questions keep bouncing back within your work / projects?

As head of design at the Gorki Theater Berlin, I am part of the Gorki creative team, who carries out an ongoing investigation into identity and belonging. All our shows link to this in some way or another. Each production opens up a new area of research, resulting in a new encounter with these themes. At times, this encounter also manifests itself aesthetically, like e.g. in my design for Chekhov’s ‚The Cherry Orchard‘, directed by Nurkan Erpulat.

The Cherry Orcard

At the Gorki as well as in my freelance work, my ongoing concern is to create a unique and beautiful world which allows the director and actors to make it theirs and bounce off it to places none of us had imagined in the first place. This sometimes doesn’t even take much….

‚Aufzeichnungen aus dem Kellerloch‘ by Dostojewski, directed by Egill Heidar Anton Palsson at the Schaubühne Berlin.

With my set designs, I want to provide a concrete space which leaves open ‚gaps‘ to be filled by the audience’s imagination, space for them to complete the world onstage, areas where the concrete dissolves into the subconscious.

Tania Kelley

‚Der Hund, die Nacht und das Messer‘ by Marius von Mayenburg, directed by Benedict Andrews at the Schaubühne Berlin

“Doubt, Delight and Change!” – was a claim by Cedric Price (an unconventional and visionary architect best-known for buildings which never saw the light of day – but who was one of the most influential and visionary architects of the late-twentieth century). What is your claim and why?

Create a challenge and find out where it takes you!

If I know how a set is done in the first place, the fun is lacking…. I like to invent near to impossible things to then enter a work process, collaborating with the technical team and the workshops to find solutions for the set design to happen.

This birch tree for example lies across the Gorki stage, providing the set for „Der Russe ist einer der Birken liebt“ by Olga Grjasnowa, directed by Yael Ronen at the Gorki Theater Berlin. It is made up of pieces no wider than 1m and can be split into two within seconds in case of emergency, in which the iron curtain needs to close right across the (fake) tree. At the end of the show the tree is hoisted up into the fly gallery until only the trunk of the tree is seen – the novel ends in the desert. Nobody believed this last movement was ever going to happen elegantly with the very limited technical equipment available at the Gorki Theater – but thanks to the technical team and my stubbornness it does.

„Der Russe ist einer der Birken liebt“ by Olga Grjasnowa, directed by Yael Ronen at the Gorki Theater Berlin

And what we really want to know from you is: What is your most treasured possession?

My daily cup of tea makes the world go around. A moment of rest, a moment to catch my breath and refocus, a moment of consolation when I’m stuck…