Chen Chen (she/her)
Performance Design MAÂ
Chen Chen is a set and costume designer based in Bristol and Shanghai. She graduated from Shanghai Theatre Academy with a BA (Hons) in Set Design before enrolling on the Performance Design MA.
Chen has diverse experiences in theatre, short films and exhibitions. She is interested in observing life and creating interesting connections between stories and social phenomena. She specialises in set design, model making and digital drawing.
BOVTS credits:
Set Designer: As You Like It (Malcolm X Community Centre)
Set Designer: Holes  (Wardrobe Theatre)
Holes
In collaboration with director Lydia Cook, our joint artistic vision is a dystopian realist scenario. I created the sight of a plane crashing on an isolated island at the Wardrobe Theatre. Damaged cardboard boxes and the broken turbine sinking in the sand were used to reflect the theme of desperation in the story.
Photography credit: Craig Fuller
The Writer
Working with director Monica Silkenas, I designed a living environment that was extremely uncomfortable for the writer—a seemingly ordinary flat for two, filled with shades of a patriarchal society. The writer’s handwriting was carved into the floor. The withered plants, falling posters, and cracked walls of the flat show the poison of capitalism spreading and consuming the writer’s life. The cracks and dirty platforms represent the shaky authoritarian system hidden beneath the surface of a seemingly harmonious society that is gradually disintegrating and crumbling.
Photography credit: Chen Chen
Caligula's Solo Show
Caligula’s Solo Show is an automaton based on Albert Camus’ play, Caligula. It is set in an abandoned theatre warehouse where a man finds an old vinyl record player. He opens it and discovers instructions written on the box.
He follows the instructions step by step and realizes that the entire automaton comes to life.
Caligula sings a rap, and the corpses around him dance to the music. As the music concludes, his body disintegrates, highlighting the striking similarity of history.
Photography credit: Chen Chen
