Design Approach

This is a play about Julia and Jane. They are vital, vibrant women each in their fifth year of marriage to rather ordinary men. The idea of Maurice, the suave Frenchman with whom they have both dallied, brings excitement, passion and rivalry back into their otherwise somewhat repressed lives.

Coward quietly establishes an undercurrent of psychology in Julia and Fred’s opening discussion of their marriage. Throughout the play he introduces imagery that seems to come from a Freudian handbook. I tried to establish the Sterroll sitting room a place that symbolizes the things that Julia and Jane might want to escape from. Architecturally it lives in the 19th century instead of the more sensually expressive Art Deco style of the early 30’s. It’s as cool and uptight, confining but tasteful. It provides a contrast to the color and spirit of the ladies, particularly as they unleash their “ids” in the wild second act and we see them as the angels they really are.

© 2004 by Gion DeFrancesco