Earthquakes in London (2025)

Production Design

The play centres on the lives and loves of three sisters, abandoned long ago by their doom-mongering father, a prominent climate scientist who predicts environmental apocalypse. The eldest sister is a cabinet minister negotiating an airport expansion, choosing between environment and economy. The middle sister is heavily pregnant and growing increasingly depressed about the uncertain future her child is being born into. The youngest sister is a rebellious teenager and frequent nuisance to her career-minded eldest sister. As the three women attempt, in their own different ways, to come to terms with the fact that their father's pessimistic forecasts may be right, Freya, the middle sister, contemplates suicide to avoid bringing her child into an apocalyptic future and an opportunity presents itself for reconciliation with their estranged misanthropic father.

Shay worked as a member of a 4 person design team to design the set, costume and props for the show as part of a devised process. Shay was primarily focused on the set, including doing all of the construction work on the bespoke pieces designed to resemble fragments of a house by symbolising a door-frame, a cornice, and a structural beam. Shay also did a quarter of the fittings and worked collaboratively to conceptualise the design language and visuals of the show.