reviews

 'Callow’s task is somewhat alleviated by the spareness of Fiammetta Horvat's set: a blank, black canvas on which his only physical task is to occasionally move around a collection of wooden chairs intially concealed behind the fire-doors at the rear of the stage area. The featureless spartan setting, and the fact that Callow is the only moving object that the audience has to fasten on, sharply focuses attention on Hurt’s investigation of the impact Jesus made on individuals with whom his life at some point intersected.'

The man Jesus. 2013 . Terence BlainIrish Theatre Magazine

'Out of this pile, Fiammetta Horvat's design enables vivid recreations of the Last Supper, the money-lenders in the temple, the brutality of Golgotha and other set pieces.'

The man Jesus. 2013. Jane Coyle. Irish Times

'the naked simplicity of the set...'

The man Jesus. 2013. Cathal Delea. thegown.net

'The stage is completely stripped back, the brick walls and fire evacuation sign giving a sense of stark bareness, of barrenness, almost of bleakness. This allows the audience to focus only on the actor on stage and gives the feeling of the story being told in any space or time.'

The man Jesus. 2013. classygenes.blogspot.co.uk

'All the while, an assortment of chairs that the surprisingly spritely actor fetches from the back are placed as theatrical and often actual supports for his array of characters. And as these chairs are fetched, arranged, rearranged again and again about this stark arena, they add their own curious character, an abstracted landscape in this otherwise barren stage.'

The man Jesus. 2013. Nawaz. culturenorthernireland.org

it’s quirky fairy tale like set designed by Fiammetta Horvat, hides plenty of surprises and many beautiful images.

Mess. 2012. John Roberts. The Public Reviews

...director Swift and designer Flammetta Horvat find strikingly evocative ways of presenting Josephine's journey visually, from symbolising her anorexia by a Rapunzel-like tower in which she hides from the world's impurities to the total mess that is made of the stage at the end to celebrate her recovery.

Mess. 2012. Gerald Berkowitz. TheatreguideLondon

Beneath a pink-lit parasol on a tower of towels, Josephine holds court like Samuel Beckett's Winnie in Happy Days.

Mess. 2012. Neil Cooper. Herald Scotland

The candyfloss and fairy lights aesthetic rubs against the subject matter brilliantly, as it manages to show the world as Josephine sees it.    

Mess. 2012. Matt Trueman. NewStatesman

...sits atop a platform under a fairy-light bedecked parasol, like a lonely princess in a children’s story...

On Fiammetta Horvat's deft set, the cubicles become phone booths, changing rooms and nightclub toilets, the graffiti on the walls and the loo paper provide the script.

The stagecraft is a joy. A string of cut-out paper children are slowly concertinaed out of view as they are evacuated from their homes. A clothes line full of washing is backlit to reveal a city in flames, bombs raining from the sky. There are numerous vintage suitcases strewn around the set and in these become accordions, typewriters, kitchen tables; 

Waiting for Stanley. 2012. Natasha Tripney. Exeunt Magazine

The set is deceptively simple, a stack of suitcases in keeping with the starting point, a railway station, but nearly every one of those cases has a secret to reveal or contributes to the action in some way. Our imagination recreates the space as the interior of her home, her kitchen, the shelter... whilst the suitcases become kitchen tables, typewriters, a child’s bed...

Waiting for Stanley. 2012.  Kate Saffin. Fringereview.co.uk

What appears to be the detritus of a rundown wartime railway station provides (quite literally) a box of tricks, as suitcases transform into radios, cribs, typewriters and many other props.

Waiting for Stanley.2011. Naylor. Westend.broadwayworld.com

From the moment I entered the ‘Slick’ gates to when I left an hour and a half later, I really felt that I had left Sheffield behind and been transported to a new world.

Slick. 2011. Ruth Amos.www.veritamag.com

Around 250 members of the National Youth Theatre descended on the beach at Selwick Bay, Flamborough, last week decked out in bright orange overalls, to launch a new environmental initiative. 

Slick. 2011. Bridlington Free Press

 …“a memorable set. Ibsen's "spacious garden-room" and glass-walled conservatory become a dim, permeable hothouse space ­— separated only by thin strands, reaching from floor to ceiling — and a multitude of light bulbs swinging eerily from above. Static rain runs constantly down the back wall; a television, similarly grainy, has been integrated into the book and magazine-laden table at center stage, occasionally providing a cacophony of voices. Most unnervingly, the back of the stage is lined by potted plants connected to IV drips.”

Ghosts. 2010.  Elina Mishuris. Washington Square News

“The most noticeable star of the play is the set. Created by Fiammetta Horvat, it is little more than a series of strings that descend from the ceiling, giving the actors transparent rooms to inhabit. It works more like a boxing ring than a stage.”

Ghosts. 2010. Whistness. Quazen.com

 …"a smart modernist set treatment by Fiammetta Horvat and echoes solidly the main ethos of Ibsen.”

"Fish wires run vertically linking the stage floor to the ceiling.  These lines form a cage and transparent means for the audience to watch the drama unfold.”

…"an image of rain back lit on clear material adds to the human and weather dreariness.” 

Ghosts. 2010. Rugarberry.com

 …”the ultra-cool set by Flammetta Horvat […]its very unique and disturbing elements: different length wires with working light bulbs attached dangle from the ceiling, hospital I.V. bags hang over numerous potted plants spanning the back of the stage, a transparent cage created out of fish wire maps out the main playing area and three television screens separate the stage in thirds, showing a flurry of images that echo the actors' interior feelings.”

Ghosts. 2010. Maura Kelley. Offoffonline

…”the set is a vast presence.”

“The entire space becomes an exercise in transparency and illumination, thickly stylized.” […] ”… visual brilliance…”

Ghosts. 2010. Joseph Samuel Wright. Theatre is easy. theasy.com

"There are moments of impressive stage invention that evoke the transformative wonders of electricity" "…show's visual highlights."

Terrific Electric. Barbican Pit. 2007. Robert Shore. The London Evening Standard.

…”its designers and director in particular, that the actors are never upstaged by the effects, despite this being some of the most effective technical design I have seen.”

Terrific electric.  Barbican Pit. 2007. Louise Hill. British Theatre Guide.

”...a chaque détour d'une scénographie originale créée par sa fille Fiammetta sous la forme d'un labyrinthe." 

Labyrinthe Horvat. Musee Landowski. 2007. Figaroscope

“The set is noteworthy: what looks like a few bits of metal and plastic resembling a run-down old platform, transforms itself to neighbours' trees and secret hiding places in the blink of an eye.”

Anorak of fire. Etc theatre. 2004. Richard Castello. Fringe report.

…” set of wooden blocks and burnt paper strikes the right note of impoverished seediness...”

Achidi Js final hours. Finborough theatre.2004. Sam Marlowe. The Times.