What about the family trees in Twine?

First posted on Instagram

Last week, someone asked us about the set design and the meaning behind the trees. You might be surprised by the inspos and how much work went into crafting them (thanks to designer Naomi!)

Text reads "Fall into a forest of family trees haunted by Stuart Hall and bell hooks, Kat Slater (yes, that one), and Medea, where taboos are broken, and yearnings and desires grow deeper, richer and riskier than they could ever have imagined."

Text reads "Just wondering, what's the meaning behind the family trees?"

Text reads "Twine centres the adult adoptee experience and their complex relationship with the notion of family and family trees. To help with the set design process on how to represent Sycamore's family trees, we did a deep dive into arboriculture. This helped inform the script too! Arboriculture. Noun. the cultivation of trees and shubs."

Photo of three black women (the Twine cast), and text that reads "Visually, if you thought about "cool-looking" trees, you might think of Disney's Groot, Tolkien's Ents, or singing Grandma Willow. Naomi, our designer, brought to life Sycamore's multiple family trees on stage. And like the three characters, the trees are not entirely separate entities. They feed into each other... and the end result..?"

 

Production photo of Twine, 3 black performers have their arms stretched to the ceiling, with three tree-like structures behind them made of a wide variety of materials. Text reads"birth/biological family tree. Bare, full of holes, sparse, stoic. Corporate parent family tree. Hostile, wired, filled with files of other adoptees, bureaucratic. adoptee family tree. Crocheted, patchworked, hospitable."

Photo by Manuel Harlan

Production photo of Twine. Text reads "Catch Twine and journey through Sycarmore's family trees. We'll be at the Legacy Centre on 16-19 October."

Photo: Manuel Harlan

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