My friend and colleague Peter Farley, who has died aged 68 of bronchial pneumonia, was a theatre designer, international exhibition curator, writer and teacher.
A longstanding committee member and director of the Society of British Theatre Designers, he was also the curator and designer of Transformation & Revelation, the UK Design for Performance at the Prague Quadrennial 2011, and he curated exhibitions at the V&A in London and in Beijing.
Born in Farnham, Surrey, Peter was adopted as a baby by Elizabeth (known as Bette, nee Barr), a cleaner, and Percy (known as Peter) Farley, who fought in Burma. Peter was initially brought up in Kent. In 1964, when he was 10 and the family was living in Sunningdale, Berkshire, his parents had another son, John. The following year a heart problem contributed to their father’s early death, in his 40s, deeply affecting Peter.
In 1965, Bette took Peter and John to Australia to visit family and start a new life, but in the end they stayed for less than a year, returning to the UK to live in Chobham, Surrey, with Peter attending the Salesian school in Chertsey.
Peter moved to London in 1973 to study theatre design at Wimbledon School of Art (now part of the University of the Arts London). On leaving Wimbledon, he quickly became a part of the 70s London theatre and art scene. He ran a gallery called the Artists’ Market in Covent Garden with the artist Vera Russell, and worked as a design assistant and collaborator with the artist, theatre and film designer Yolanda Sonnabend.
In the late 80s, Peter returned to Wimbledon as a part-time associate lecturer, simultaneously holding a similar position at Central Saint Martins. He then ran the MA scenography course (now theatre and production design) at Wimbledon for a couple of years in the early 90s, after which he remained as a freelance associate lecture while also working with Sonnabend. In 1996, he became senior lecturer on the BA theatre design course, where he stayed until his retirement in 2019.
In 2015 Peter led the curatorial team of the largest-ever exhibition of European theatre design in China, hosted by the National Centre for Performing Arts in Beijing. He was beginning to suffer from ill health and friends advised him against going, but Peter was determined and, of course, once he arrived in Beijing, he was in his element and loved every minute of it.
As a young man Peter struggled with alcohol addiction but he overcame it with the support of Alcoholics Anonymous, and in his later years went on to become a mentor to others struggling with the illness.
Peter had two longterm relationships: the first with Robin Duff, who died in 1990, and then in the mid-90s he rekindled his friendship with the writer Stefan Andhé, whom he had first met in the 70s. In 1996, Peter bought a tiny cottage in the Lanes, Brighton, which he loved, and he and Stefan split their time between there and London.
Peter is survived by Stefan and by his brother, John.
