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Audio Description
Yi Gao
Yi Gao is a designer from China. She graduated in 2025 with an MA in Theatre and Performance Design from Wimbledon College of Arts, UAL, and also has a background in urban design. Her work engages with narratives shaped by explorations of human nature, social issues and philosophy. She places particular emphasis on using stage design to convey emotion while embedding layers of meaning, creating diverse relationships between audience and performance. She continues to investigate avant-garde directing approaches and more expansive forms of storytelling.
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The Bald Soprano
By Eugène Ionesco
Speculative set and costume design for Beijing Poly Theatre
2023
The illogical dialogue in The Bald Soprano demonstrates that language does not always facilitate true communication. This fragment reminds me of Martin Heidegger’s view on words. He believes that words are merely tools that obscure human emotions, making it impossible for people to truly communicate with each other.
I attempted to use the dialogue box as a source of inspiration. My intention was to create a separate space that expresses the isolation between people. I used two movable structures to separate the space horizontally and vertically.
The dialogue between the Martins and the Smiths in the play exposed the hypocrisy and indifference of relationships. We are currently living in the Information Age, where people spend a lot of time on the internet. Communication often takes place through electronic screens and dialogue boxes, which can hinder real communication. This has led to an era of absurd masking and information fragmentation.
The Visit
by Friedrich Dürrenmatt
Speculative set and costume design for an adaptable thrust stage
This darkly humorous tragicomedy can be read as a critique of both capitalism and communism, it can also be seen as a small story of revenge and a test of humanity. I chose to stage the play on a thrust stage to make it more immersive for the audience, to make them part of the town of Güllen and to participate in this game of human nature.
The design was inspired by a chess board and the Sokoban box-pushing game. Claire has a lot of luggage, which even includes a cage to bring in a black panther, an act which ultimately kills Alfred. It’s this step-by-step pushing of boxes that forces an old lover into a death trap.
When the black panther is shot, parts of a railway line hanging above the stage fall halfway. In the end, Alfred, like the panther, is hunted by the former inhabitants of the town, and after he is finally killed, the track falls down completely. The rails symbolise the cage in which Alfred is held, but also the sword of Damocles that hangs over the heads of the townspeople and the spectators, all participants in this murderous game.
Ghosts
by Henrik Ibsen
Speculative set and costume design for Donald Gordon Theatre of Wales, Millennium Centre
2023
The play Ghosts is an important example of Ibsen’s writing on social issues. It is set in a Norwegian seaside villa. The play gave me a feeling of dampness and coldness, so I wanted to build a cold and damp dacha on stage to convey the feelings to the audience.
In the play, Mrs. Alving is a victim of the old feudal system, and her husband is the invisible shackle from which she cannot escape. As well as her husband, she is discouraged and disciplined by Reverend Mander, and spends her whole life trying to achieve personal liberation and freedom. However, in the end, she is ultimately held back by her son and falls into her husband’s shadow. The play can be a tragedy of Mrs. Alving’s inability to escape her fate, or it can be a portrayal of her stubborn heart. The garden outside the mansion is damp as it is constantly raining. The depressing and foggy feeling is not only reflected in the surroundings, but also in Mrs. Alving’s heart. Her husband seems to be the ghost and the fog covers the house.
I designed the villa as a triangular structure, which was angled to the side to push the stage away from the apron. The high walls dominate the space, looming over the interiors to create an overbearing atmosphere. The constant rain in the garden is achieved by using a sprinkler system which is fed by water recycled through floor drains. The audience can observe various
details through the garden windows: the carpenter who appears in the first scene comes from the garden. The fire in the orphanage as well as the sunlight that eventually comes into the room can also be seen through the garden windows.
In the play, Mrs. Alving hears what she calls “haunting” sounds, while the truth is that her own son is attempting to seduce the maid, who unbeknownst to him is his half-sister. Mrs. Alving does not see it, she hears it. However, I wanted the audience to receive the truth from a third-person perspective to get an insight into Mrs. Alving’s life. In keeping with the “haunting” nature of the play, I added some enclosing wall structures to enrich the space of the villa.
This meant that the audience sightlines were partially blocked. I set up three cameras and a large screen to reveal this hidden perspective to the audience, in conjunction with the stage view.
Oedipus
by Steven Berkoff after Sophocles
Speculative set and costume design for Lyttelton, National Theatre
2025
Oedipus, king of Thebes, unknowingly fulfills a prophecy by killing his father and marrying his mother. As the truth unfolds, he is devastated, blinds himself, and goes into exile, symbolising fate’s inescapable power and the tragedy of human ignorance.
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