Alexander McPherson

Alexander McPherson has worked in the theatre since the age of 14. For many years he was Head of Design at the Bristol Old Vic under Val May, where designs included The Boy Friend, Trelawny and productions which toured for the British Council to Hong Kong and South America. He was invited back as guest designer for The Threepenny Opera and the first U.K. production of Anouilh’s The Arrest with John Hurt. He spent a year as Head of Design for the Tyne and Wear Theatre Company at the Newcastle Playhouse, and for Christmas 1987 was asked to design Peter Pan, for the New Tyne Theatre, for which he was acclaimed for his use of the theatre’s original Victorian stage machinery. He spent three years as Head of Design at the Redgrave Theatre Farnham. From 1989 – 1995 he was Head of Design at the Theatre Royal Windsor where he designed the annual pantomimes, and plays such as The Chalk Garden with Helena Bonham-Carter, Eleanor Bron, Michael Denison and Dulcie Gray, Present Laughter with Tom Conti and many others. His witty pantomime sets have also been seen in many other places including Barnstaple, Truro, and at the Hackney Empire.

He has designed many opera sets and costumes notably for the Welsh National Opera, l’Opera du Rhin (Strasbourg) and l’Opera de Lyon (a joint production of Cavalli’s L’Oromindo), the Royal Northern College of Music, Scottish Opera and for Opera Clwyd Eugene Onegin. He also designed the costumes for a film of The Mikado.

Freelance productions for the West End include amongst others, the sets for Ardele with Vincent Price and Coral Browne, for The Apple Cart starring Peter O’Toole, and for Dead Guilty by Richard Harris with Jenny Seagrove and Hayley Mills. Other freelance work includes productions for Liverpool Playhouse, The Yvonne Arnaud in Guildford with stars such as Derek Jacobi, Wendy Craig and Eileen Atkins, costumes for The Taming of the Shrew at the Ludlow Festival and the setting for In Praise of Rattigan starring Penelope Keith. He has designed several productions for The English Speaking Theatre in Stockholm, Swallows and Amazons for Southampton, The Curse of the Baskervilles for the Theatre Royal Plymouth and for the Theatre Royal Windsor The Haunted Hotel, Final Judgement, and Appetite by Keith Baxter. He has done many minimalist flexible settings for RADA Enterprise’s productions of Shakespeare and adaptations of classics for its Cunard cruises as well as many full scale productions for the school itself.

National tours include sets and costumes for The Breadwinner with George Cole, Gingerbread Lady with Marti Caine, Mr and Mrs Nobody, with Patricia Routledge and Clive Swift, Move Over Mrs Markham, Gaslight, The Spider’s Web (for the Agatha Christie 100th anniversary celebrations), Witness For the Prosecution, The Last of the Red Hot Lovers, directed by and starring Tom Conti, Charlie’s Aunt with Christopher Biggins, two versions of Lord Arthur Savile’s Crime directed by Christopher Luscombe (firstly starring Russ Abbot, then Lee Dean) and Half a Sixpence with Gary Wilmot. His work for The Hiss and Boo Company includes back cloths for Music Hall and many Pantomimes. He designed the back cloth for the Reduced Shakepeare Company’s Hollywood in an Hour.

Most recently he has given a workshop in special painted effect techniques for the Royal Opera House, mentored a project on Commedia dell’ Arte for the Design course at RADA, and made a mask for The Nutcracker King Mouse for The London Studio Centre. He has just designed a musical version of The Importance of Being Earnest, directed by Iqbal Khan, for the Theatre Royal Windsor and is about to design Absolute Hell for The Central School of Speech and Drama.