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Es Devlin

CBE RDI
Es Devlin in Studio.jpg
Devlin in 2016
Born
Esmeralda Devlin

(1971-09-24) 24 September 1971 (age 53)
Kingston upon Thames, London, England
Education
Occupation Artist and designer
Spouse(s) Jack Galloway
Children 2
Awards

Esmeralda Devlin CBE RDI (/ɛz/; born 24 September 1971) is an English artist and stage designer who works in a range of media, often mapping light and projected film onto kinetic sculptural forms. She has received several accolades including a Tony Award and two Olivier Awards. She was appointed Officer of the Order of the British Empire (OBE) in the 2015 and Commander of the Order of the British Empire (CBE) in the 2022 by Queen Elizabeth II for services to design. She was recognized as one of the BBC's 100 women of 2013.

Devlin is known for her extensive work in the theatre. For her work in the West End she won two Laurence Olivier Awards for Best Set Design for Chimerica (2014), and The Nether (2015). She was Olivier-nominated for Hamlet (2016), The Lehman Trilogy (2019), and Dear England (2024). For her work on Broadway she won the Tony Award for Best Scenic Design of a Play for The Lehman Trilogy (2022). She was Tony-nominated for Machinal (2014), and American Psycho (2016). She is also known for her The Hunt (2019) and The Motive and the Cue (2023).

Early life and education

Devlin was born in Kingston upon Thames, London, on 24 September 1971. She attended Cranbrook School, Kent.

She studied English literature at Bristol University, followed by a Foundation Course in Fine Art at Central St. Martin's eventually specialising in theatre design. While undertaking her studies, she prepared the props for Le Cirque Invisible, the circus company founded by Victoria Chaplin and Chaplin's husband, Jean-Baptiste Thierrée.

Career

Her practice began in narrative theatre and experimental opera After a period working for London's Bush Theatre, she first worked for the National Theatre in 1998 when Trevor Nunn asked her to design the set for a revival of Harold Pinter's Betrayal. She has since worked on sculptural designs for the theatre.

In 2005, she was hired by Kanye West to work on his tour Touch the Sky.

Devlin designed the UK Pavilion at the 2020 World Expo in Dubai. She is the first woman to be commissioned by the UK since world expositions began in 1851.

Her luminous fluorescent red Fifth Lion sculpture roared A.I. generated collective poetry to crowds in Trafalgar Square during London Design Festival September 2018. The Singing Tree, her collective choral carol installation at the Victoria and Albert Museum, fused machine-learning with sound and light and was viewed by over ten thousand visitors during Christmas 2017; her Mirrormaze generated queues around the block in Peckham in 2016. Further explorations of labyrinthine and map based geometries led to the 7000 square foot hotel room odyssey Room2022 at Art Basel Miami 2017 and the projection-mapped ovoid model city MASK at Somerset House 2018.

The designer collaborated with the theoretical physicist Carlo Rovelli on an interpretation of The Order of Time read by Benedict Cumberbatch at the rooftop art space, BOLD Tendencies in Peckham in September 2018. Devlin has made large scale touring stage sculptures in collaboration with Beyoncé, Kanye West, Adele, U2, The Weeknd, Lorde, Pet Shop Boys, and the Royal Opera House in London. Devlin also designed the London Olympics closing ceremony in 2012 and the opening ceremony of the 2016 Rio Olympics.

In 2019, Devlin delivered a talk at the TED conference in Vancouver entitled 'Mind-blowing sculptures that fuse art & technology'. It was later selected by TED curator Chris Anderson as one of the best talks of 2019. Her collaboration with rapper Dave and producer Fraser T. Smith won an Ivor Novello Award for Best Contemporary Song 2021. She also collaborated with the artist Yinka Ilori on the design of the Britannia statuettes for the 2021 Brit Awards.

Her work on the 2022 Super Bowl Half Time show featuring Dr Dre, Kendrick Lamar and Eminem won 3 Emmy Awards including best production design while her work on Adele's Griffith Observatory performance also won 5 Emmys at the same ceremony. She received widespread attention and a Tony Award for Best Scenic Design for her work on the Sam Mendes directed play The Lehman Trilogy. She did the scenic design of the Rupert Goold play The Hunt (2019), which transferred to New York at St. Ann's Warehouse in 2024.

Work

The Poem Pavilion she designed at the 2020 World Expo in Dubai - following the UK's theme "Innovating for a Shared Future" - featured an illuminated "message to space" to which each of the Expo's million visitors would be invited to contribute.

Using plastic trees, sellotape, stretchy mirrored sheeting, string, she builds "dream-like constellation of things" explaining that “the piece happens between those objects,”

"Each of her designs is an attack on the notion that a set is merely scenery" wrote Andrew O'Hagan in The New Yorker in 2016. Devlin "is in demand because she can enter the psychic ether of each production and make it glow with significance." For Hamlet director Lyndsey Turner, Devlin “doesn’t design what a play wants but what it needs.”

Personal life

Devlin is married to the theatrical costume designer Jack Galloway; they have two children and live in London. Her husband works on the Lion King musical franchise.

Recognition

  • Fellow of University of the Arts London

Devlin is the subject of episode three of the Netflix documentary series Abstract: The Art of Design.

Work

Theatre

Year Project Credit Venue Ref.
1999 Howie the Rookie Scenic Design Bush Theatre, London
2001 A Day in the Death of Joe Egg Scenic Design / Costume Design Ambassador's Theatre, West End
2003 American Airlines Theatre, Broadway
2013 Chimerica Scenic Designer Almeida Theatre, West End
2014 Machinal Set Design American Airlines Theatre, Broadway
2014 The Nether Scenic Designer Royal Court Theatre, London
2014 American Psycho Scenic Design Almeida Theatre, West End
2016 Gerald Schoenfeld Theatre, Broadway
2015 Hamlet Scenic Designer Barbican Theatre, West End
2018 Aristocrats Scenic Designer Donmar Warehouse, West End
2018 Girls & Boys Set Designer The Royal Court Theatre, London
Minetta Lane Theatre, Off-Broadway
2018 The Lehman Trilogy Scenic Design Lyttelton Theatre, West End
2021 Nederlander Theatre, Broadway
2019 The Hunt Scenic Design Almeida Theatre, West End
2024 St. Ann's Warehouse, Brooklyn
2023 The Crucible Scenic Designer Olivier Theatre, West End
2023 Dear England Scenic Designer Olivier Theatre, West End
2023 The Motive and the Cue Scenic Designer Lyttelton Theatre, West End
2024 Noël Coward Theatre, West End

Television

Year Project Credit Notes
2008 Salome Production designer Television movie
2014 Julie Taymor's A Midsummer Night's Dream Television movie
2015 Hamlet Television movie
2015 Adele Live in London Television special
Adele Live in New York City Television special
2018 The 60th Annual Grammy Awards Creative director Television special
2021 Adele One Night Only Production designer Television special
2022 The Pepsi Super Bowl LVI Halftime Show Creative director Television special
2023 The Weekend Live at SoFi Stadium Production designer Television special
2023 The Crucible Set Decorator National Theatre Live special

Accolades

Year Award Category Nominated work Result Ref.
2014 Laurence Olivier Award Best Set Design Chimerica Won
2015 The Nether Won
2016 Hamlet Nominated
2019 The Lehman Trilogy Nominated
2024 Dear England Pending
2014 Tony Award Best Scenic Design of a Play Machinal Nominated
2016 Best Scenic Design of a Musical American Psycho Nominated
2022 Best Scenic Design of a Play The Lehman Trilogy Won

See also

Kids robot.svg In Spanish: Es Devlin para niños

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