My attitude to stage design changed about 15 years ago when I was on the judging panel for the Evening Standard theatre awards. Advocating one designer, I was met by an objection from another critic: “You can’t see what he does.” That was, of course, the best argument for my chap winning. Suddenly I realised what should have been self-evident: the best design does not have evident designs on its audience.
I remembered that exchange when watching Mohamed-Zain Dada’s light-footed new play, Speed. Tomás Palmer’s design scarcely seems arranged: it is simply a place in which things happen. In a hotel meeting room, the air hangs heavy. Alarmingly large goldfish gloom around an aquarium; a very non-speedy vending machine is made to yield a neat joke; a serving hatch covered in a metal screen delivers a rattling fright. Every object helps emphasise the action and makes it register quickly.
