Gary Harris received a Sunday Herald Culture Award commendation for his stunning design of Sir Kenneth MacMillan’s The Fairy’s Kiss.
Designing a Revival
Gary has worked with Scottish Ballet since 2013, when he designed a sumptuous new production of Hansel & Gretel. In 2017 he was commissioned to design the revival production of The Fairy’s Kiss to mark the 25th anniversary of the death of its original choreographer, Kenneth MacMillan.
The Fairy’s Kiss was originally created in 1960, inspired by Hans Christian Andersen’s fairytale ‘The Ice Maiden’. The original set design for the Royal Opera House’s production was so complex that it has only had one other revival since.
When setting out to design a revival production, it is always a delicate balance to consider and acknowledge its artistic lineage, whilst bringing it to life for a modern audience. Scottish Ballet put its trust in the experience and expertise of internationally acclaimed designer Gary Harris to design its revival production of The Fairy’s Kiss, which premiered in Glasgow in Autumn 2017.
The brief was clear – to design a ballet that gave a nod to the production’s original setting while injecting fresh energy into one of Sir Kenneth MacMillan’s earliest works.
Gary’s set and costume design for The Fairy’s Kiss exists outside of an immediately identifiable time or place. It employs subtlety and restraint to suggest a modest township somewhere within a mountain range. The effect of this gives audiences a comforting sense of familiarity which skilfully reflects the nature of the ballet’s main character – an alluring yet deceptive fairy.
Fantastic costume design and atmospheric sets. We are immediately transported to the snowy Russian mountains in The Fairy’s Kiss as dancer Sophie Martin swirls and crumples, buffeted by winds brought by eerie, black-eyed wind spirits with flowing wispy hair. When later the evil fairy uses an illusion to blend into the mountainside, the effect is splendidly created by hiding under a blanket decorated to resemble the snowy ground
Bachtrack
As this 2017 production marked the 25th anniversary of the death of original choreographer Sir Kenneth MacMillan, Gary looked for inspiration in MacMillan’s life and in close consultation with his family. The vast and intricately designed backdrop, which depicts an aerial view of a craggy snow-capped mountain range, was inspired by a photo taken by Lady MacMillan (Kenneth MacMillan’s widow).
Designer Gary Harris, too, has done a superb job re-staging the work, with his clever, cottage-like frames dangling high above the action
The Scotsman
Related news
