Love this monochromatic look for the Dear Octopus set 🎨
Frankie Bardshaw shares his inspiration and reasoning behind the set design for Dear Octopus
by Dodie Smith.
The family, from whose tentacles we can never quite escape
When a golden wedding anniversary reunites the Randolph family on the eve of WWII, Dora and Charles must reckon with the adults their children have become. Their children, meanwhile, are haunted by the memory of the family they once were.
As the weekend’s celebrations unfold, the family walks a tightrope between intimacy and estrangement, camaraderie and rivalry, love and hate.
Heartbreaking and joyful, this captivating revival of Dodie Smith’s (I Capture the Castle) play is a moving dissection of family and what it means to grow up and return home.
Lindsay Duncan (Hansard) plays Dora in this beautiful, contemporary production, directed by Emily Burns (Jack Absolute Flies Again).
Watch on NT at Home: https://www.ntathome.com/dear-octopus
About Frankie Bradshaw
Frankie is an award winning set and costume designer based in London, working across theatre, opera, dance and film.
She won the Critics' Circle Award for Best Design in 2025. In the same year she was nominated for an Olivier award for Best Set Design for her design for Ballet Shoes at the National Theatre, and was nominated for an Olivier award for Best Costume Design in 2023 for her work on Blues for an Alabama Sky, also at the National Theatre. In 2019 she won the Stage Debut award for Best Creative West End Debut with director Lynette Linton for their partnership on creating Sweat at the Gielgud Theatre. Frankie was winner of the Off West-End Award for Best Set Design in 2016 for Adding Machine (Finborough Theatre) and was also a Linbury Prize Finalist in 2015, and a Jerwood Young Designer in 2017.
Frankie has worked across the UK in the West End and in venues including the National Theatre, the RSC, the Donmar Warehouse, the Young Vic, Kiln Theatre and the Royal Exchange in Manchester.
Read more: https://www.frankiebradshawdesign.com/
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