Designing MADDADDAM

Designing

Photo credit: Ravi Deepres / We Not I

Wayne McGregor’s MADDADDAM is the first of The National Ballet of Canada’s co-productions with The Royal Ballet to be choreographed and built mainly in Canada, reflecting McGregor’s established relationship with this company and Margaret Atwood’s iconic status as a Canadian writer.

The National Ballet’s production and wardrobe teams have been collaborating with McGregor’s creative team to simulate Atwood’s post-apocalyptic world, while incorporating visual references to Canada and the city of Toronto.

Barney Bayliss, Director of Production, is working with Mark Treharne of the UK design firm We Not I on the sets. “We returned to the design in September 2021 after more than a year of interruptions due to the pandemic,” says Bayliss. “We saw a final design presentation early in 2022 and we’ve been consulting with the creative team over Zoom to bring it to life.”

Bayliss shares that the set design is minimalist across the ballet’s three acts, featuring “simple shapes” and video projections by Filmmaker Ravi Deepres. Highlights include footage shot at the Expo 67 site in Montréal and a striking architectural scan of the Toronto skyline. “All of the designers are interested in architecture, typography and graphic design,” says Bayliss. “The final show will reflect that.”

Most of the scenery is being built and stored at The Gretchen Ross Production Centre in Toronto, apart from a large set piece for Act I – a fiberglass egg with a metal frame that has been outsourced to a company in England specializing in such structures.

The costumes for MADDADDAM are also being constructed inhouse, by the National Ballet’s wardrobe team in consultation with Costume Designer Gareth Pugh. “Gareth is a fashion designer and has a very different approach to his design process,” says Wardrobe Supervisor Stacy Dimitropoulos. “Where some designers begin the communication process with a sketch, Gareth’s approach is to build prototypes and have a tangible item to begin the conversation.” The question of how to define Atwood’s imaginative characters and character groups has been integral to the costume design, with Pugh choosing distinct fabrics or looks to serve as cues. “We were all very curious to see how Gareth and Wayne would approach the Crakers,” says Dimitropoulos, citing a key character group from the novels. “Atwood’s description of the Crakers is very visual. I can’t share all the details, but Gareth’s approach to the costume and how he defines them visually is very effective and communicates the essence of who the Crakers are.”

Video projections are part of the costume design, as they are with the sets, and Dimitropoulos notes that certain video elements will be reflected in a fabric commissioned specifically for one of the characters. This layered, cutting-edge approach to the design of MADDADDAM is consistent with Atwood’s speculative fiction, which defies genre or conventional boundaries of form and balances scientific precision with imagination, experimentalism and fun.

Lead philanthropic support for MADDADDAM is provided by The Walter Carsen New Creations Fund, The Gail Hutchison Fund, Rosamond Ivey, Tim & Frances Price, Gretchen & Donald Ross, O.C. and The Producers’ Circle.

The Producers’ Circle: Gail & Mark Appel, John & Claudine Bailey, Inger Bartlett & Marshal Stearns, Laura Dinner & Richard Rooney, Gail Drummond & Bob Dorrance, Ira Gluskin & Maxine Granovsky Gluskin, The William & Nona Heaslip Foundation, Anna McCowan-Johnson & Donald K. Johnson, O.C., Judy Korthals & Peter Irwin, Mona & Harvey Levenstein, Jerry & Joan Lozinski, The Honourable Margaret Norrie McCain, C.C., Julie Medland, Sandra Pitblado, C.M. & Jim Pitblado, C.M., The Harry & Lillian Seymour Family Foundation and The Jack Weinbaum Family Foundation.

Harrison James is sponsored through Dancers First by Lucy White. Siphesihle November is sponsored through Dancers First by Jerry & Joan Lozinski.