Bunny Christie (born 1962) is a Scottish theatre
set designer
Scenic design (also known as scenography, stage design, or set design) is the creation of theatrical, as well as film or television scenery. Scenic designers come from a variety of artistic backgrounds, but in recent years, are mostly train ...
.
Career
She was born in
St Andrews
St Andrews ( la, S. Andrea(s); sco, Saunt Aundraes; gd, Cill Rìmhinn) is a town on the east coast of Fife in Scotland, southeast of Dundee and northeast of Edinburgh. St Andrews had a recorded population of 16,800 , making it Fife's fou ...
, educated at
Madras College
Madras College, often referred to as Madras, is a Scottish comprehensive secondary school located in St Andrews, Fife. It educates over 1,400 pupils aged between 11 and 18 and was founded in 1833 by the Rev. Dr Andrew Bell.
History
Madras ...
and at the
Central School of Art
The Central School of Art and Design was a public school of fine and applied arts in London, England. It offered foundation and degree level courses. It was established in 1896 by the London County Council as the Central School of Arts and Cr ...
in London. She has won four
Olivier Awards
The Laurence Olivier Awards, or simply the Olivier Awards, are presented annually by the Society of London Theatre to recognise excellence in professional theatre in London at an annual ceremony in the capital. The awards were originally known as ...
and also worked on
Kenneth Branagh
Sir Kenneth Charles Branagh (; born 10 December 1960) is a British actor and filmmaker. Branagh trained at the Royal Academy of Dramatic Art in London and has served as its president since 2015. He has won an Academy Award, four BAFTAs (plus ...
's Oscar-nominated short film ''
Swan Song''.
Christie designed the sets and costumes for ''
The Curious Incident of the Dog in the Night-Time
''The Curious Incident of the Dog in the Night-Time'' is a 2003 mystery novel by British writer Mark Haddon. Its title refers to an observation by the fictional detective Sherlock Holmes (created by Arthur Conan Doyle) in the 1892 short story ...
'', which was initially produced at the
Royal National Theatre
The Royal National Theatre in London, commonly known as the National Theatre (NT), is one of the United Kingdom's three most prominent publicly funded performing arts venues, alongside the Royal Shakespeare Company and the Royal Opera House. I ...
in 2012, and also was performed on
Broadway
Broadway may refer to:
Theatre
* Broadway Theatre (disambiguation)
* Broadway theatre, theatrical productions in professional theatres near Broadway, Manhattan, New York City, U.S.
** Broadway (Manhattan), the street
**Broadway Theatre (53rd Stree ...
in 2014.
In 2014, Christie designed the set for the new musical ''
Made in Dagenham
''Made in Dagenham'' is a 2010 British comedy-drama film directed by Nigel Cole and starring Sally Hawkins, Bob Hoskins, Miranda Richardson, Geraldine James, Rosamund Pike, Andrea Riseborough, Jaime Winstone, Daniel Mays and Richard Schiff. ...
''. She designed the set for ''
People, Places and Things
''People, Places and Things'' is a play by the British playwright Duncan Macmillan. The inaugural production was directed by Jeremy Herrin and staged at the National Theatre in London in 2015. The play was widely praised by critics for its depi ...
'' which ran at the Royal National Theatre in 2015 and
Off-Broadway
An off-Broadway theatre is any professional theatre venue in New York City with a seating capacity between 100 and 499, inclusive. These theatres are smaller than Broadway theatres, but larger than off-off-Broadway theatres, which seat fewer tha ...
at
St. Ann's Warehouse in 2017.
In 2018, she designed the set for
Marianne Elliot’s gender bending revival of the musical
''Company''. The musical opened in the
West End in 2018.
She was appointed
Officer of the Order of the British Empire
The Most Excellent Order of the British Empire is a British order of chivalry, rewarding contributions to the arts and sciences, work with charitable and welfare organisations,
and public service outside the civil service. It was established o ...
(OBE) in the
2019 New Year Honours for her services to British theatre.
David Jays, writing in ''The Guardian'', described her style: "Bunny Christie doesn’t design stage sets. She creates worlds. Audaciously theatrical and frequently startling, her creations pull spectators headlong into the universe of a play – whether through the disorienting aperture of ''The Red Barn'' or the vintage newsroom pile-up in ''Ink''. Christie often places us inside a protagonist’s head – she designs psychology as well as space, most notably for the singular hero of ''The Curious Incident'', which won her one of her three Olivier awards."
[Jays, David]
"Dangerous dreams: the mind-blowing world of designer Bunny Christie – in pictures"
''The Guardian'', 4 September 2017
Awards and nominations
References
{{DEFAULTSORT:Christie, Bunny
British scenic designers
1962 births
Living people
Alumni of the Central School of Art and Design
Tony Award winners
Laurence Olivier Award winners
Officers of the Order of the British Empire
Date of birth missing (living people)
Women scenic designers
People educated at Madras College