Anyone familiar with Crimes of The Heart?

Question

Crimes of the Heart takes place in 1974 but the sisters have lived in their house for their whole lives. Should I design the set with 70's furnishings but everything else from the late 50's? Or should I do it from early fifties?

Answer 1

yes i'm familiar with the play.  are you the director or just the designer?  you know, the neat thing about re-creating a show is that technically you can set it in any time period you want.  make it modern times if you want.  or the future.  or any decade you choose.  directors can interpret the script any way they want, and it makes it much more interesting and meaningful.  maybe you feel like the subject matter can translate to today's world and is a concern in 2008, so you can make the sisters modern day, complete with computers and cell phones.  this is what makes directing creative, challenging, interesting, and fun.  however if you are just the designer and not the director, obviously this is not your call and needs to be discussed, haha.

if you are set on doing it as is, i think you should make things look early 70's if thats what you're going for.  it should have a common theme and should show the audience some hint of what time period they are living in during the play.  if the costumes are 70ish the furniture should be also.  you could definitely have some pieces from the fifties thrown in there but try to make them clearly antiques for the characters, so the audience doesnt get too confused.  hope this helps a little.