SIGNE BECKMANN

Manchester Royal Exchange

King Lear by William Shakespeare

Directed by Michael Buffong

Lighting design by Jo Town

Fotograf: Jonathan Keenan / Signe Beckmann

The Telegraph ★★★★

“...Don Warrington ascends the cliff face with magnificent authority. He rages around his daughters like a hulking thunder cloud in human form, not just the incarnation of absolute rule but of something more ancient and of the earth...Buffong’s production, set in a pre-modern England and featuring a cast that’s a good two-thirds black, has a sweeping sense of landscape and history, and uses a ritualistic language of torchlight, pagan drum-beats and a circle drawn in the sand to powerfully convey the narrative of an old mythic order inexorably breaking down.”

The Guardian ★★★★

“As close to definitive as can be. Don Warrington cuts a powerful and tyrannic Lear, amid a superb cast and suggestions of a forgotten history of black Britain...Designer Signe Beckmann presents a barren disc of compacted brown earth, echoing the observation of Miltos Yerolemou’s irrepressible rubber ball of a Fool that his master has become “an O without a figure”.

The Stage ★★★★

“Don Warrington’s towering performance is one of many virtues in this outstanding production...Director Michael Buffong, his designer Signe Beckmann and lighting designer Johanna Town instead conjure a great deal of atmosphere on a simple tilted wooden gravel disc, lit by flaming torches, lamps and haze, while Tayo Akinbode's pulsing soundtrack keeps up an ominous commentary of its own.”

The Times ★★★★

“...a significant production.”

Manchester Evening Post ★★★★

“William Shakespeare's story of a kingdom carved up with disastrous political and personal consequences has rarely felt more relevant . It's a lavish spectacle, a minimal earthy set brought to life through extraordinary period costume and occasional downpours of rain.”

The Odyssey : Missing, Presumed Dead by Simon Armitage

Directed by Nick Bagnall

Lighting design by Mike Robertson

Liverpool Everyman Theatre / Shakespeare’s Globe / ETT

The Guardian ★★★★

“A timely modern political drama…Fascinating”

The Stage ★★★★

“... Signe Beckmann’s elliptical set proclaims Greek drama from the moment we enter the auditorium, and affords a balancing act for Odysseus and his crew on-board ship...tremendous theatre, leaving a bold image imprinted on the mind.”

The Times ★★★★

“Genius…funny and full of surprises”

The Observer ★★★

“... Signe Beckmann’s beautiful wood design, made up of resin-coloured geometric shapes, serves both ancient and modern.

Liverpool Echo ★★★★

“The present and past bleed into each other, sometimes existing simultaneously on designer Signe Beckmann’s evocative set, simple but clever, where a slice of gimbal staging pitches and tilts to replicate the motion of a ship...There’s a salty tang in the air, and sand between the toes.

British Theatre Guide

“Of particular note are the rather ingenious steps which effortlessly transform into the creaking prow of a longboat replete with mast and oars.“

Photographer Gary Calton

Don Giovanni by Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart

The Royal Opera House, Copenhagen

Directed by Aniara Amos

Conducted by Lars Ulrik Mortensen / Benjamin Bayl

Set design by Alex Eales

Costume design by Signe Beckmann

Lighting design by Ulrik Gad

Børsen ★★★★★

“Exciting and fresh new interpretation...The Chiliean director Aniara Amos has an ear for what happens in the music. This is clear in her direction, which is liberated of any of the usual clichés you often see in opera...The cast are all excellent...The whole show is a joy.”

Århus Stifttidende ★★★★★

“One has got to be very excited when The Royal Opera presents a new production with a selection of the best singers, as well as Concerto Copenhagen with Lars Ulrik Mortensen conducting. The cast sing and act excellently, provocatively and with great humour, and at the same time with danger, enchantment and great sweetness.”

Kultunaut ★★★★★

“Don Juan is like a wild orkan”

Photographs: Miklos Szabo / Signe Beckmann

Debris by Dennis Kelly

Directed by Abigail Graham

Lighting design by Jack Knowles

Southwark Playhouse, London.

Photographer Richard Davenport

Whats on Stage ★★★★

…”Painted grey and dominated by a large pile of rocks, the theatre's ‘Little' space, complemented by Signe Beckmann's excellent, minimalist design, serves perfectly as the backdrop to this deliciously dark and often disturbingly comic piece.”…

The Serpent’s Tooth By David Watson

Directed by Michael Buffong

Lighting design by Tim Mascall

Produced by Almeida Theatre and Talawa Theatre Company

Basement rooms of Shoreditch Town Hall, London.

One Stop Arts ★★★★★

As the audience are marched around a basement just off Old Street, this haunting, imagined production that follows on from the events after King Lear, is a promenade production with a difference... the space is utilised to uncomfortable, prison-like perfection. Invigorating, intense and vivid...an absolute must-see.

Manchester Royal Exchange Theatre /
Soho Theatre, London /
St Stephen's Edinburgh /
Stückemarkt Berlin Theatertreffen

Writer: Chris Thorpe

Director: Sam Pritchard

Set and costume design: Signe Beckmann

Lighting designer: Jack Knowles

Photographer: John Goodfellow

Broadway Baby ★★★★ “...remarkable and intelligent... The design and staging are particularly appropriate to what’s going on in the play - blinds run along the back of the seated actors; we’re on the threshold of something, there’s something behind them that we can’t yet see, and we’re being held in an indefinite waiting room. The scripts and the microphones add to the sense of disconnect, and whilst the mode of delivery is cold and clinical, it’s got a frightening precision and clarity; we’re detached from the immediate action of the stories but they’re being relayed to us with extraordinary force. This is a truly impressive, difficult piece of theatre that demands a great deal of concentration from its audience. It powerfully dramatises the uncertainty of the mechanisms of change, and the tentative effects of human action and reaction upon the events of the world. It’s a play set in the present, for the present.

The Guardian ★★★★ “Utterly compelling… remarkable....Sam Pritchard's perfectly judged production.”

The Stage “Must See Show” “Hypnotic. An astonishingly sharp piece… Takes you on a journey that’s brutal and packs a hefty emotional punch...an uncompromising, minimalist aesthetic that lends itself to criticisms of monotony at our peril. “

What’sOnStage ★★★★ “From electrifying writing and performances to serious ethical confrontation in one hour… Both profoundly satisfying and deeply unsettling at once.”

Time Out ★★★★ “Chris Thorpe’s new poetry play is an oblique, unsettling work that feels like it’s come quietly out of nowhere to crawl almost to the heart of the current political theatre zeitgeist.”

Sheffield Crucible Studio, Sheffield, Uk

Writer: Sarah Kane

Directer: Charlotte Gwinner

Set and costume designer: Signe Beckmann

Lighting designer: Hartley T. A. Kemp

Photographs: Mark Douet

The Guardian ★★★★ …”scratches at the scabs of inadequacy, failure and despair that we all bear. The clock ticks. The abstract blue scar that encircles the playing space tingles and convulses like an electric shock. Time runs out, as it does for all of us.”

Chapter Arts, Cardiff, Wales

Writer: Katherine Chandler

Director: Catherine Paskell

Lighting designer: Jason Osterman

Photographer: Tom Beardshaw / Jason Osterman

Theatre Critics of Wales Awards
“Best Production in the English Language“

British Theatre Guide
”Parallel Lines is a significant production in the history of Welsh theatre.”

Young Critics (National Theatre Wales Community)
“When I entered the theatre space my attention was immediately drawn to the intriguing way the set, designed by Signe Beckmann, had been divided into two and the contrast between the spaces being vast opposites. I can’t applaud this piece enough and I would definitely recommend anyone to see it, brilliantly written and beautifully delivered. From the set to the actors the entire show was faultless.”

Københavns Musikteater, Copenhagen & international tour

Rapid Eye Productions

Director: Lars Bethke

Associate directors: Benjamin Richter, Nina Kareis

Set and costume designer: Signe Beckmann

Music: Bjørn Svin

Lighting designer: Tobias Stål

Projection designer: Solvejg Hockings

Photographer: Andreas Bergmann Steen / Signe Beckmann

POLITIKEN ♥ ♥ ♥ ♥ “…helt forunderligt er det, hvordan et stykke gulv kan blive forvandlet til en stor papmachémåne. Pludselig svæver den der i luften. For vores måbende øjne…Tyst poesi, humor og dusinvis af ringe - magiske – spøjst rørende – momenter”…

BERLINSKE TIDENDE ★★★★ …”Allerede scenografiens videobelyste, tætte rækker af tynde hvide snore skaber synsbedrag i rummet og giver bl.a. en illusion om en gennembrydelig væg ud til publikum. Både bagved, foran og med snorene trukket til side folder de to jonglører sig ækvilibristisk ud med et væld af orange jonglørringe, akkompagneret af Bjørn Svins fint varierede elektroniske klangbilleder og rytmer….Mod slutningen åbner forestillingen for nye associationer og billeder, når det store hvide tæppe på scenegulvet krølles sammen og for undertegnede kommer til at ligne et stort drivende isbjerg, inden det hænges op som en kugle i en snor og bliver til en måneillusion i teaterrummet.”

TEATER 1 ★★★★

Kulturkongen ★★★★

Embassy Theatre
Central School of Speech & Drama, London, Uk

Writer: Federico Garcia Lorca

Director: Clare Lizzimore

Set Designer: Signe Beckmann

Costume designer: Susannah Lombardelli

Lighting designer: George Bishop

Bridewell Theatre
Guildhall School of Music & Drama, London, Uk

Writer: David Hare

Director: Tom Daley

Set and costume designer: Signe Beckmann

Lighting designer: Rob Dyer

Pleasance Courtyard, Edinburgh /
Assembly Gardens, Edinburgh /
Latitude Festival

An intimate pop-up peepshow theatre featuring plays about sexuality. The audience sit in each their booth, looking onto the stage through a one way mirror.

Director: Donnacadh O’Briain

Venue, set and costume designer: Signe Beckmann

Lighting designer: Ben Ormerod

Financial Times ★★★★ 

EDFEST★★★★  "The Set is indeed brilliantly thought out, and unlike anything I have seen before at the fringe...it is hard not to be amazed by the incredible concept that is worthy of the turner prize."

Fest ★★★  "The feeling of watching but not being watched acts as a novel dramaturgical device, engendering feelings of claustrophobia and seediness that are ripe for aesthetic manipulation.... such original site-specific staging"

Scotsgay ★★★★  "As one approaches the gargantuan black latex shrouded box that Peep inhabits, we are overcome by a salacious sense of bawdy excitement. Each audience member is treated to an individual peep hatch, where we put on headphones and sit back and enjoy the show. Already a unique backdrop has been set... This plot is a feat of magic, unfurling like the tiniest origami that unfolds into a beautiful, sensuous creature that captures the audience immediately. Warning: Peep is addictive!"

New Statesman “It is immaculately directed, production values are clearly very high and the voyeuristic effect works uncomfortably well.”

Fringe Review - Recommended Show “Step in line for a PEEP show, and you are led into a private viewing booth where you don a pair of headphones and peer through a one-way mirror into the private lives contained within. You can see the performers but they can’t see you, and you can’t see any of the other audience members, and they can’t see you. It’s all very anonymous. And it transforms the theatre-going experience.”

Teatro Sá de Miranda
Viana do Castelo, Portugal

Composer: Giovanni Battista Pergolesi

Director: William Oldroyd

Conductor: Premil Petrovic

Set and costume designer: Signe Beckmann

Lighting designer: David Holmes

New Vic Theatre
Newcastle-under-Lyme, Uk

Writer: Henrik Ibsen, adapted by Richard Eyre

Director: Abbey Wright

Set and costume designer: Signe Beckmann

Lighting designer: Daniella Beattie

Composer: Simon Slater

British Theatre Guide …”a stunning show which deserves to win awards of its own”

Linbury Studio
London Academy of Music & Dramatic Art (LAMDA), London, Uk

Writer: Helen Edmundsen

Director: David Grindley

Set and costume designer: Signe Beckmann

The Bush Theatre, London

Writer: John Donnelly

Director: Charlotte Gwinner

Set and costume designer: Signe Beckmann

Lighting designer: Mark Doubleday

Sound designer: Tom Gibbons

Photographer: Geraint Lewis / Signe Beckmann

Time Out ★★★★★

"Poignant and hilarious"

The Times ★★★★

"Thoroughly entertaining...bitterly funny"

Guardian ★★★★

"Donnelly grips our attention from start to finish. He is well served by Charlotte Gwinner's production which, surrounding the audience with a four-sided blackboard, reeks of authenticity. “

Evening Standard ★★★★

"Fizzes with wry insider wit"

Telegraph ★★★★

"Terrific"

Independent ★★★★

"The Bush marches straight to the top of the class"

Financial Times ★★★★

"Whatever you think this play is, that's what it's not"

The Lowry (Quays Theatre)
Salford, Uk

Company Chameleon

Set designer: Signe Beckmann

Costume designer: Fabrice Serafino

Lighting designer: Adam Caree

Photographer: Brian Slater

The Public Reviews ★★★★   “ ...a great fusion of dance and drama. Incredibly accomplished in their physical language, and a great theatrical collaboration- Company Chameleon’s Gameshow is a must see.”

Norwich Playhouse, Uk

Written by David Harrower

Directed by Martin Hutson

Set and costume design by Signe Beckmann

Lighting design by Henry King

Photographs by Signe Beckmann / Simon Annand

Dansehallerne, Copenhagen / International tour

Rapid Eye Productions

Director: Mads Rosenbeck

Set and costume designer: Signe Beckmann

Lighting designer: Tobias Staal

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fFiIk-lltJo

Danish Arts Foundation - Film and Performing Arts
“Film and Performing Arts has chosen to reward Quiproquo - a poetic contemporary circus performance with Samuel Gustavsson and Niclas Stureberg. The show moves elegantly and easily through many worlds. It is philosophical, mathematical, poetic, humorous, deeply human and at the same time very exclusive. The show gives the audience the greatest gift of live theater - Quiproquo makes us wonder. Thank you!"

Danstidningen, Vibeke Wern
“...Surprising, refined and super cool. Two equlibristic performers and jugglers perform imaginative scenes with bricks, sticks and a silver ball - all done with exquisite, graceful movements - playful and elegant”.

Takkelloftet - The Opera House, Copenhagen
/ touring Denmark.

Writer: Alfred Jarry

Adaptation: Lotte Faarup

Company: Corona La Balance

Director: Lotte Faarup

Set and costume designer: Signe Beckmann

Lighting designer: Jeppe Lawaetz

Nominated for a “Reumert” as best children show of the year, 2007.

★★★★★ Jyllandsposten “Pshit! Well, then it´s said. The most famous word in the french dramatists Alfred Jarry´s absurd and scandalous war-, tyrant- and egoistic-satirical drama from 1896. Staged by the children-theatre-ensemble Corona La Balance´s eminent sense for live images. Two fat males are stomping along, humping and greedily farting, as father and mother Ubu, around a filthy toilet on wheels, and when war breaks lose, they shoot with loo-rolls - some of them used! Exactly as the lines, which are full of latrinary expressions. Children´s theatre´s play with illusion and reality fits in perfectly with Ubu´s strange world. At times it is harsh farce, other times they talk directly to us or are changing their eminently ugly costumes, which maintains the illusion and at the same time demontrate, that it´s “just” theatre, performed in full light. Baroque and grotesque - and understandable. Like a fairytale of the real ugly ones.”

★★★★★ Berlingske “King Ubu concures all.” “With the toilet-brush as weapon and the flying-helmet well down over the ears, Jan Overgaard Mogensen is at times a tyrannical shouting monkey and a mad dog, at other times a calculating, smirking opportunist as the bastart Ubu, who´s throne and warrior-horse is a filthy toilet on wheels. With Øjvind Kirchhoff playing almost all of the other characters - from the greasy Mother Ubu, with the swinging and low hanging breasts and the nicotine-coloured wig, to all the members of the nearly extinguised royal family - all at the same time!! The means are simple in this roughly cut and yet refined, musical and physical piece of theatre, which has simplicity as it´s main accet. As when Ubu is at war and is bombarded by a cascade of toilet-rolls. What else?”