Set Designer Ben Dickens writes about the inspiration for the set for Mind The Gap

See the design research photo's

I spent a couple of days traveling on the underground, experiencing the sounds, smells and atmosphere.

For most people the tube system is for traveling from home to work, but for some it represents their own subterranean world. This can be a sanctuary or indeed a prison depending on the mental state of the traveler.

A journey on the tube can be unnerving for anyone, all the comforting visual references of the outside world are missing, its dark and noisy and gives one a sense of powerlessness when a train does not arrive.

The design is based on the platform at Clapham North station which is the old style platform where trains come in on both sides. Hardly any of these stations still exist, you hear the noise of the train and are not sure which side it will come to which is quite unnerving.

To heighten this unease the platform I have designed for the show is considerably narrower and shorter than the real one, pushing the characters closer together leading to more disquiet.

Ben Dickens Summer 2004

	For further information about this project, email our Tour Producer David Jackson