Issue link: https://digital.copcomm.com/i/1474575
3 4 P E R S P E C T I V E | J U L Y / A U G U S T 2 0 2 2 Having designed two seasons of The Great, and with filming on the third season ust about to start, it is an interesting assignment to look back and write about the design process that has led the production to where we are now. Even from reading the first scripts, I knew immediately this show would be a huge endeavour, but there was a sense of familiarity in the writing which was reinforced during my first meeting with Tony McNamara the show's creator and writer and Marian Macgowan executive producer that made me feel really drawn to the proect, like being a part of it had always been in my charts. I couldn't have guessed back then that I would spend the next three years creating and constantly reinventing the world which the eccentric characters of The Great inhabit. It was clear from the beginning that this would not be a stuffy biodrama of queens and kings. Tony believed that the story should be grounded in the eighteenth century, but he wasn't preoccupied with historical accuracy. is background was theatre. The Great had originally been written as a play and staged in Sydney, before Tony later adapted it to a feature length screenplay and finally, a T series. is approach to design was therefore, less is more,' of sets highlighting moments. s an extension to the script, the spaces could narrate a story through what we showed or decided not to show the narrative quality of spaces and props being as important as the written word. is primary concern was that we should create spaces that would support the story and offer a framework for it to develop. e wanted each space to tell a story—for example, an empty room with a broken chair and a big burn mark on a wall C r e a t i n g t h e i s u a l o r l d o f T H E G R E A T B Y F R A N C E S C A D I M O T T O L A , P R O D U C T I O N D E S I G N E R A