A Neutral Platform for Debate: AGREEMENT Set

Conor Murphy, Set & Costume Designer, talks us through his creative journey designing AGREEMENT.

“I was delighted to be invited to design this production celebrating the 25th anniversary of the Good Friday Agreement. The director, Charlotte Westenra, did a lot of research in preparation for the piece and she collaborated closely with Owen McCafferty who has skilfully brought the dry political subject matter to vivid life with a generous dollop of humour. 

The actual negotiations took place in Castle Buildings in Stormont, a pretty drab 1970s office building. Different designers have different approaches, but, for me, there was no point in trying to recreate Castle Buildings on stage…that is best left to TV documentaries and film. 

What we can do differently in theatre is allow the design to evolve directly from the action of the play. I started with the blank canvas of the Lyric stage: an open stage without walls or ‘scenery’ and made an initial storyboard which mapped out the main action. Seeing all the offices at the same time felt important to us all as well as having a sense of the corridors between the offices – where a lot of the ‘casual’ conversations in the piece take place. 

Initially, we considered using a revolve which would allow us to look at the various offices from different perspectives throughout the play. This would have involved static desks on a revolving stage… and may have been an easier option for the cast! For the final design we opted for moving desks on a static floor which has a much more immediate and visceral effect than the more predictable nature of a revolving stage. In this version, all the dynamics of the space can be taken advantage of by the director and the cast. So much so that as the characters get progressively more exhausted during the negotiations, we can physically sense their exhaustion…it’s very real! There is deliberately no colour onstage…except for a few indicators of character in the costumes. The stage is a neutral platform for debate. It was important to avoid any misinterpretation of colour in the space. A sense of the world outside of Castle Buildings was also necessary so I included a ‘ring’ of stage lights to add to the feeling that the talks were taking place in the goldfish bowl of press and media coverage. 

Another image which Owen has cleverly written into the piece is that of the bleak and changing Irish weather which ebbs and flows alongside the difficulty of the negotiations and culminates in a neat denouement based on the real events. To realise this, I designed a floating projection screen which can function as a barometer, a clock and can be used for text such as dates and infographics which help to clarify some of the main points of the agreement. Video designer Eoin Robinson created the visuals for the screen. 

While the space is fairly abstract, the costumes are very real. The Lyric costume department have diligently sourced original 1990s clothes where possible to lend as much authenticity as we can to the very well-known characters. 

After initially cursing us a little because they have so much pushing of furniture to do during the piece, the cast eventually embraced the design approach. I hope the audience enjoys watching the performance as much as we have enjoyed creating it with the fantastic team at the Lyric theatre”.

This piece is an extract from the Gate Theatre programme for AGREEMENT, to read more you can find our programmes on-sale in the Gate Theatre box office, café and bar.  Learn more about this show and purchase tickets.