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The Cripple of Inishmaan

by Martin McDonagh

The Questors Theatre

Director – Anne Neville

Set Designer – Alex Marker

Costume Designer – Jenny Richardson

Lighting Designer – Andrew Dixon

Sound Designer – Daniel Beilby

'Alex Marker's set is West End Standard'

Helen Higgins – Irish World

13/2/2016

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Can't Buy Me Love

by Gareth Machin

Salisbury Playhouse

Devised and Directed by – Gareth Machin

Musical Director and Arranger – Kate Edgar

Choreographer – Jo Redman

Designer – Alex Marker

Lighting Designer – Peter Hunter

Cast: Kieran Buckeridge, Susannah Van Den burgh, Christine Holman and Tomas Wolstenholme

Press

'The whole thing looks a million dollars on Alex Marker's gilded set with its giant dice, roulette wheel and financial graphs running round the gallery.'

Lesley Bates – The Stage

https://www.thestage.co.uk/reviews/2015/cant-buy-me-love-review-at-the-salisbury-playhouse-energetic-but-patchy/

'Money, of course, and sets don’t convey a sense of affluence more convincingly than this one, with its impressive illuminated staircase, grand piano, downstage floor with its roulette table markings and, above all the opulence, that vast starlit sky.'

'...the most lavish set the Salberg’s ever seen…'

Anne Hill – The British Theatre Guide

http://www.britishtheatreguide.info/reviews/can-t-buy-me-lo-salisbury-playh-12417

'It sounds great – Kate Edgar returns to the Playhouse again as musical director and arranger – and looks a million dollars on Alex Marker’s set with its illuminated staircase, giant dice, roulette-wheeled floor and gilded stage.'

Barbara Steele – Musical Theatre Review

http://musicaltheatrereview.com/cant-buy-me-love-salisbury-playhouse/

'The stylish set, designed by Alex Marker, makes for an elegant evening'  

Gay Pirrie-Weir – The Fine Times Recorder

http://www.theftr.co.uk/cant-buy-me-love-salberg-studio-salisbury/

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Asking Rembrandt

By Steve Gooch

The Old Red Lion Islington

Director – Jonathan Kemp

Producer – Damien Tracey

Set and Costume Designer – Alex Marker

Lighting Designer – Philip Jones

Cast: Liam McKenna, John Gorrick, Esme Patey-Ford, Loz Keystone

Based around the few known facts of Rembrandt’s relationship with patron Jan Six, as well as mistress Hendrickje Stoffels, this incisive new play looks at the perils of the commissioning process through the working life of this most formidable artist.

“Some people can’t bear to be caught wearing last year’s idea”

***** (Five stars) Britishtheatre.com

***** (Five stars) Playstosee.com

**** (Four stars) The Stage

**** (Four stars)Downstagecentre.com

**** (Four stars) TheatreTourist.com

'The star of the show, though, is Alex Marker’s beautiful set, surrounded by vast gilt frames. It’s a detailed mock-up of an artist’s studio where everything is smeared with paint, and knick-knacks – cups, feathers, fruit – adorn the shelves, ready to be plucked at random and arranged for a still life.'

Tim Bano – Time Out

http://www.timeout.com/london/theatre/asking-rembrandt

'Scealta Mora's production is atmospherically designed by Alex Marker.'

Paul Vale – The Stage

www.thestage.co.uk/reviews/2015/asking-rembrandt/

'The set looks like it could be the subject of one of Rembrandt’s paintings. The tiny theatre is transformed into a dimly lit studio with beautiful fabrics thrown over chairs and half-finished canvasses spilling from paint-encrusted shelves. The costumes evoke the 1700s with rich colours and attention to detail. The stage itself is edged by broken life-sized golden frames, eliciting comparisons between painting and theatre as art.'

Saskia McCraken – playstosee.com

http://playstosee.com/asking-rembrandt/

'The designer, Alex Marker, has done an impressive job with the setting, which is both carefully detailed and flexible for the players. He works hard to hold the  audience’s attention as the space remains unchanged throughout, with exception of a few dressings.'

Eloise Hodder – DownStageCentre.com 

http://downstagecentre.com/the-dsc-team/eloise-hodder/asking-rembrandt/

'...the set (designed by Alex Marker) was fantastic – huge, ornate gilt frames draped about the stage in a very artistic manner, sketches scattered around and paintbrushes tossed aside on the workbench – not to mention the art itself, which was pretty incredible. In fact it’s probably the best set I’ve seen at the Old Red Lion.'

Michaela Clement- Hayes

http://www.westendwilma.com/asking-rembrandt-old-red-lion/

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TheCutting of the Cloth

By Michael Hastings

Southwark Playhouse

Director – Tricia Thorns

Set designer – Alex Marker

Lighting Designer – Neill Brinkworth

Costume designer – Emily Stuart

Sound Designer – Dominic Bilkey

Stage Manger – Linda Hapgood

Deputy Stage Manager – Claire Litton

Producer – Graham Cowley

Cast: Alexis Caley, Andy de La Tour, Paul Rider, James El-Sharawy, Abigail Thaw.

The work-room of a Savile Row tailors, 1953. Two master craftsmen at daggers drawn: Polish-born Spijak insists that nothing can beat the excellence of a hand-sewn suit, while Eric uses his machine to work at twice the speed and earn twice the money. Sparks fly as each fights his own corner with biting wit and vicious humour. Into this battleground steps Maurice, a teenager at the very start of his apprenticeship. Will he survive the gruelling training to become a master tailor? Or will he, as Spijak’s daughter urges him to, escape?

**** Fours Stars – The Financial Times

**** Four Stars – The Evening Standard

**** Four Stars – The Public Reviews

'Tricia Thorns’s production and Alex Marker’s design, however, are immaculate in their detail.'

Michael Billington – The Guardian

'Alex Marker's excellent set perfectly recreates the tailors' basement, complete with treadle sewing machines, hissing irons, flashing scissors and spools of thread…'

Sarah Hemming – The Financial Times

'There’s some strong comic playing from the cast and Alex Marker’s set is lovingly cluttered, a visual approach which complements the language of the play, dense as it is with the terminology of tailors.'

Natasha Tripney – The Stage

'Discovered by Two’s Company, it is sensitively directed by Tricia Thorns on Alex Marker’s set, which is so realistic you can almost feel the loose threads tickle your nose.'

Aleks Sierz – The Arts Desk

'The late Michael Hastings wrote this play in 1973. Tricia Thorn’s beautifully staged, finely acted production makes one amazed that it has never before been staged and could have lain in a drawer forgotten, even though listed in reference books.'

'It is a beautiful play given a production that couldn’t be bettered. It is moving, almost tragic and also very, very funny. It deserves to be seen much more widely but catch it now while you can.'

Howard Loxton – British Theatre Guide

'The real joy of director Tricia Thorn’s production is the care she has taken to depict the art of tailoring in 1950s London. Alex Marker’s set hums with industry -- steamers hiss, sewing machines whirr, and cloth is ripped, sewn and hammered within an inch of its life.'

Miriam Gillinson – Time Out

'The play is supported by the loveliest set I’ve seen at Southwark Playhouse, with three big workbenches strewn with offcuts, steaming irons, and blinking fluorescents above.'

David Ralf – Exeunt

'Alex Marker’s set design provides a wealth of convincing visual detail, complemented by the sizzle of the iron, the treadle of the sewing machine and by plenty of Savile Row expressions.'

Jon Wainwright - The Public Reviews

'Alex Marker’s set is so vivid and detailed that, sitting three rows back, I half expected to be taken to task for slacking.'

Stephen Bates – The Beast's Pen (Blog)

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Around the World in 80 Days

Adapted by Toby Hulse from the novel by Jules Verne

 The Theatre, Chipping Norton and National Tour

 Director – John Terry

Set and Costume Design – Alex Marker

Lighting Design – Amy Southeard

Composition and Sound Design – Eamonn O’Dwyer

Movement Direction – Bronya Deutsch

Company Stage Manager – Colin Newton

 Cast: Gareth Cassidy, Richard Hurst, and Anna Tolputt

 **** (Four stars) – The Stage

***** (Five Stars) – The Public Reviews

 ‘But what of the film’s 112 locations? Admittedly some scenes are omitted, but Alex Marker’s set design is a miracle of ingenuity, with bits that fold out and roll down to provide different backdrops’

 Giles Woodforde – Oxfordshire Times

http://www.oxfordtimes.co.uk/leisure/theatre/theatre/reviews/11510049.Around_the_World_in_80_Days___Chipping_Norton_Theatre/

 ‘The first thing the audience may notice on stage is a giant suitcase. While it initially plays the part of the Bank of England safe, it soon transforms into the play’s repository of props. It’s a typically simple but clever idea, suggesting that with increased ability to travel comes increased ability to perform different roles or embody different personae, and this production never lets up on that promise.’

Andrew Blades – The Stage

http://www.thestage.co.uk/reviews/review.php/40224/around-the-world-in-80-days-img

 ‘Well done, too, to set designer Alex Marker for the multi-compartmented suitcase from which this delightful production springs. Moonlighting as a bank vault, a consulate and Fogg’s own wardrobe, it’s a compact yet endlessly expansive solution to the challenge of putting eight countries on a modestly sized stage.’ 

Matt Dicks – The Public Reviews

http://www.thepublicreviews.com/around-the-world-in-80-days-the-theatre-chipping-norton/

 'Just as the Victorians were great inventors, so this show is ingenious in its presentation. The actors portraying the principle protagonists also become an array of other characters, often with wonderfully inventive use of props and accents, and great comic effect. It’s a very physical production with some great set pieces, and all three actors are hugely entertaining. The set, too, is very clever. It’s largely an over-sized trunk which opens up to become a set within a set, containing a multitude of props, drawers and doors. Part of the fun is seeing how each prop is re-used in different situations. If you’ve ever wondered how to pull an elephant from a trunk, you might get a few tips here. As one audience member said, ‘It was the best elephant ever!’

Gillian Lowe – Chippywordpress

http://chippynews.wordpress.com/2014/09/22/review-around-the-world-in-80-days-at-chippy-theatre/

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Macbeth

By William Shakespeare

The Questors Theatre

Directors: Dan Martin and Anne Neville

Set Design: Alex Marker

Costume Designers: Jenny Richardson and Jennie Yates

Lighting Designer: Richard Mead

Composer and Sound Designer: Daniel Beilby

Cast: Jolene Howorth, Elena Zagalia, Claudia Carroll, Robin Ingram, Christian Search, Roberto De Domenici, Simon Higginson, Iain Reid, Mathew Brett, Anthony Curran, Richard Graylin, Scott Drummond, Nina Flitman, Jennifer Quille, David Hovatter, John Dobson, Tim Pemberton, Hannah Webster, Quinn Goodliffe, Adam Marshall, Idris Driver and Ollie Overy-Jones.

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New CV for 2014!

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The White Carnation by R.C.Sherriff - Finborough Theatre

The White Carnation by R.C.Sherriff

  The Finborough Theatre

  Directed by Knight Mantell

  Set Designed by Alex Marker

  Costume Design by Janet Hudson Holt

  Lighting Design by Peter Harrison

  Sound Design and Original Composition by Lucinda Mason Brown

  Cast: Robert Benfield, Daisy Boulton, Ashley Cook, Lynette Edwards, Aden Gillett, Harriett Hare, Josie Kidd, Bruce Panday, Joss Porter, Benjamin Whitrow, Derek Wright, Philip York.

  November – Saturday, 21 December 2013

The first production in sixty years

“There have been strange rumours about this house. Although it was in a state of ruin, lights were seen in the windows every Christmas Eve: music was heard: voices and laughter...”

With a superlative cast led by Aden Gillett (Winner of the OffWestEnd Award for Best Actor for Accolade at the Finborough Theatre) and Benjamin Whitrow.

Christmas Eve, 1951. As Britain rebuilds itself after the war, John Greenwood has it all – a successful business, a beautiful house and an aristocratic wife. But as he bids farewell to the guests leaving his annual Christmas party, a gust of wind slams the front door shut, starting a chain of events that makes him doubt everything he has ever known...

From the writer of one of the 20th century's most acclaimed plays, Journey’s End, The White Carnation is a ghostly tale of one man’s chance to do things differently. This rediscovery marks the first production since its premiere, starring Sir Ralph Richardson, in 1953.

Review Quotes:

‘Alex Marker, however, comes up with a stunning set that does a couple of lightning conversions.’ 

Michael Billington – The Guardian

http://www.theguardian.com/stage/2013/nov/29/white-carnation-review

  ‘Alex Marker once again gets the most out of the Finborough’s minute stage with a haunting monochrome design which possesses an ethereal quality, adding yet another layer of ambiguity to what really exists.’

 Nathaniel Kent – The Public Reviews 

http://www.thepublicreviews.com/the-white-carnation-finborough-london/

  ‘The set design was similarly well done, with care and consideration shown to the look and feel of the post-war time in which the play was written. As an audience we were taken straight into the situation of the text, and I genuinely felt like we were outside in this scene – an achievement considering I was upstairs in an old pub in West Brompton.’

 Everything Theatre

http://www.everything-theatre.co.uk/2013/11/the-white-carnation-finborough-theatre.html