Fifty Nine Productions Ltd.

30/03/2008

Fifty Nine Productions in the Observer Magazine

"Leo Warner, 27, and Mark Grimmer, 24, are the youngest artists ever to receive a National Theatre associateship. They formed Fifty Nine Productions in 2006, and have created video for productions including the Royal Opera House's Salome and the National's War Horse.

'The National have been really forward thinking in the way they've embraced using video in shows,' says Grimmer.LA Weekly called their work for the National Theatre of Scotland's Black Watch 'visual poetry'.

The pair met when working on a student magazine. They're conscious of the 'murky past' of theatrical video design. As Warner explains, they avoid situations where 'everything stops, you watch a bit of video and then you carry on'. 'The video needs to be integral and integrated,' says Grimmer. 'If you can cut it, cut it.'

They're very busy. 'We did as much work as was humanly possible last year; a bit more, maybe,' says Grimmer. 'It's an uncertain industry where even very talented people have barren periods.'

It's not all sweat and stress. ' War Horse was like double art on a Friday afternoon,' says Grimmer. 'We damaged someone else's set with a pyrotechnic array, which was embarrassing,' laughs Warner. 'We scattered rather a lot of debris around the rear stage of the Lyttelton.'"

Chris Power

The Minotaur at the Royal Opera House featuring work by Fifty Nine Productions opens on 15 April

Read the article in The Observer