Knitter’s World
Julie Clare tells us all about how knitting and creativity combined to make a memorable performance of classic play The Snow Queen!
How knitting enhanced a classic play
Afestive family adaptation of Hans Christian Andersen’s The Snow Queen, which debuted in the Park Theatre in London on 4 December 2019, featured an amazing knitted background – an idea that was imagined by the show’s crew, who were inspired by ‘yarn bombing’. They created a garden filled with colourful knitted and crocheted flowers for the show’s ‘world of spring’ section. We talk to the show’s producer, Julie Clare, to find out more about the project and how knitting formed a salient part in the show.
The idea to incorporate knitting into the set design initially came from the director, Abigail Anderson, during an early production meeting as she had seen some yarn bombing ‘in the wild’ and thought it would sit really well with the whole concept of the spring section of the show. “Set designer, Gregor Donnelly, confessed he didn’t know what yarn bombing was or very much about knitting,” says Julie. “I – with a slightly sinking heart, knowing what this was likely to mean – confessed that I’m a keen knitter and crocheter, and suddenly was in charge of co-ordinating a small army of crafters to make the vision happen!”
Pictures and experiences of yarn bombing that Abigail had previously seen led the crew to do more research and they quickly realised that the concept fitted perfectly with the idea of spring being about the character, Gerda, learning to play again.
Everyone got stuck in to make Abigail’s vision a reality – a huge group of dedicated crafters, both amateur and professional, got involved, including Julie’s friend Stephen West (professional knitting designer, author, and co-owner of yarn shop, Stephen and Penelope in Amsterdam) who knitted the big panels included in the background of the set. How exactly did Julie manage to get such an enthusiastic team involved in the process? “I asked!” she laughs. “You know what knitters are like – some of the loveliest, most helpful people you could wish to meet. Pretty much everyone I asked, got on board almost immediately. Luckily, after having hosted our own monthly ‘Cake and Craft’ afternoons for over eight years with my lovely housemate, we were well plugged into the knitting community.”
The outcome was four large knitted panels (two hanging panels and two shawls strung diagonally stage left and stage right), each embellished with hundreds of beautiful crocheted flowers, plus a large shawl knitted by Stephen West on the gate of the white picket fence in the character Mrs Dear’s garden, also embellished with crocheted flowers. “The roses stuck into a dustbin lid on a green ribbon that is raised and lowered by one of the cast to show the roses going down into the earth and then rising up again,” explains Julie.
However, like any creative process, the team did encounter some setbacks along the way but were able to overcome these through improvisation. “The set designer wasn’t a massive fan of the panels initially, as he had envisioned something with simple bold stripes,” says Julie. “Unfortunately, there was no way we could have knitted panels that size in the time we had. Luckily, once the flowers were on, he fell in love with the look!”
And, after discovering the wonderful creative process of incorporating knitting into a set design – would Julie do it all again? “If I were to produce a show where a ‘crafted’ set fitted with the subject matter, I would absolutely do it again!” she says.
For more details on The Park Theatre, London visit www.parktheatre.co.uk.