Angel Street
Design Notes
For Angel Street (Gaslight), I created a Victorian drawing room that mirrored the play’s psychological tension and period elegance. Working with director Rich Cole, the design balanced authenticity with a growing sense of unease—an environment where surveillance, secrecy, and manipulation could thrive.
Deep burgundy wallpaper—applied with a 1930s wallpaper roller—introduced texture and a subtle claustrophobia. Trim details, wainscoting, and decorative molding grounded the room in the late 19th century, while a functional staircase enabled elevated staging and charged offstage implications.
In collaboration with Properties, the room filled with Victorian furnishings: a carved settee, a secretary cabinet, and a working grandfather clock. Low-wattage table lamps, framed portraits, and a distressed rug completed the lived-in aesthetic. Practical lighting supported key beats, including the crucial, incremental dimming of the gaslight itself.
Color and composition shaped mood—rich mahogany, burgundy walls, and period brass fixtures created a world that was alluring yet increasingly oppressive. The space suggested class and status while revealing the weight of domestic secrecy.
Ultimately, the set became an accomplice to the narrative, allowing the suspense to unfold visually: beautiful, confining, and complicit in the story’s central gaslighting.
