As soon as director Indiana Lown-Collins told me that her concept was to use Flamenco dancing to express the fiery, romantic tension of the lovers, I knew that this production was going to be an absolute joy to design!

The design process often starts with a discussion and sharing of ideas and I’ll explore images that can be used to further facilitate this. We agreed early on that we wanted to embrace the iconic architecture of the Globe itself but to use colour and style to enhance this and establish our aesthetic. Looking at images of rural Spain, we loved the warmth and vibrancy of brightly painted tiles and rustic peeling walls and so I started to explore ways of incorporating this style into the set.

As a designer, I love to blur the boundaries between what already exists in a theatre’s architecture and what is scenery, aiming to create a cohesive world that feels as if it’s always been there. There were already parallels between the arches of the Globe and the arches I was exploring in images of Spanish tablaos – intimate venues dedicated to Flamenco dancing – so I was keen to merge these elements. Similarly, references for intricately painted balconies would eventually lead me to creating our own bespoke balcony section in the Globe’s gallery, whilst leaving enough of the theatre’s existing balustrades to blend these elements together.

Unlike many of Shakespeare’s comedies, Love’s Labour’s Lost doesn’t end with the kind of neat resolution that might otherwise be present in a happy ending. Something has happened before the play has started that has caused the King to come to the decision to shun women, and it ends without everything being neatly tied up. This shard of melancholy throughout was something that I wanted to reflect in the design. Looking at my images of peeling layers on rustic Spanish walls, there was a real beauty in this decay, but it also points to something less than perfect. I decided to wrap the Globe’s pillars in a way that suggested that they were breaking down, as well as creating two smaller additional broken pillars, to create the impression that what once might have been statuesque was now starting to decay. The ornately tiled mosaics at the back of the stage represent the order and neatness that the King is striving to control, whilst the pillars suggest certain forces of nature that are beyond his grasp.

Whilst we always knew we wanted to embrace a glorious array of colour in the Flamenco dresses, I thought it could be really interesting if the Lords themselves were in whites and golds: something that indicated their status whilst reflecting their purging of worldly desires. The Ladies, then, would quite literally bring the colour back into their lives when they arrived at Court.

Making an early decision to create a conceptual aesthetic that is more about the art form and less about a completely literal world gave us the freedom to express what we felt were the most important elements of our story. The rural characters who might spend their days working with horses, for example, still wear dresses with layers of fabric that enhance the beautiful movement of Flamenco, but their positions and vocations are hinted at through a more earthy colour palette and very natural fabrics, contrasting with the brightly coloured prints worn by the Ladies.

This conceptual aesthetic is also reflected in the costumes worn by the Musicians: being such an important and integral element of our production, I designed them to be in the blues and yellows of the set and they include the same hints of wear and ageing that makes them feel like the very embodiment of the architecture itself.

Love’s Labour’s Lost plays in the Globe Theatre until 13 September 2026. 

FINIS.