When Tortoise in a Nutshell started this project and began bouncing ideas off each other, we were committed to making a world come alive for our audiences. We want the setting to have as much character as any puppet in our story. This is why we settled on setting a play in a mine. The underground labyrinths intrigued us, they are alien to us and we could find mystery in the shadows and danger in the rockface.

To make this world come alive our designer, Lucy McGlennon has had a mammoth task. Ensuring the world seemed huge when the stage space is small, ensuring the puppets and puppeteers could move freely and easily while still translating the drama of the cavernous mine shafts.

To do this Lucy has used wooden frames covered in polystyrene as a skeleton on which she has constructed a rocky world for the puppet to live in and navigate. To give the puppet and puppeteers complete freedom she has used wooden planks which the performers can move around the space, constantly shifting the dynamics of the world. And to frame this space Lucy will suspend wooden planks around the set. This defines the world and gives an impending sense of the world above encroaching in on the Miner's home.

As we head to the tech tomorrow we are really excited to see all these elements come together in the space and how we can complement this fantastic world with innovative and exciting use of lights. I can't wait.