Press Clippings
Show Comments Publication
Love Child
(February - March 2007)
'Alex Marker's cool, minimalist set, a room in Anna's London home, sits elegantly in the Finborough's tiny space.'
Heather Neill

The Stage
 

'The production's realism is welcome: too often we see heavily stylised sets that positively invite disbelief, but here the naturalism of the acting is complimented by a thoughtfully accurate recreation of Anna's apartment. At one point the light dims, and we here it begin to rain, one of several small details that conspired to make me feel rather as if I were eavesdropping in someone's living room.'
Sarah Perry

MusicOMH.com
 

'If 'Fringe' carries negative connotations in quality (as opposed to enterprise and innovation) terms then this isn't Fringe ... Alex Marker's set, from floor to tasteful designer accoutrements, could grace any stage.'
Timothy Ramsden

Reviewsgate
 

'This is the moment to compliment designer Alex Marker who, yet again, has worked wonders on a minimal Finborough budget by creating a really stylish living room that perfectly fits the bill.'
Philip Fisher

British Theatre Guide
King Arthur
(November 2006)
Shapeshifter’s ‘King Arthur’ is grounded in a post-Roman Britain which is more sackcloth-and-scuffling than sword and sorcery. But it Merits ten out of ten for atmosphere, promenading the audience though Artorius’ war camp, to rub shoulders with soldiers, and peek out though cow byre slats at the yammering barbarians.

It’s an imaginative use of the Arcola’s cavernous space, and the trestles, the tunics and the talk of Vortegern all thicken the ambience.’
Caroline McGin

Time Out
  The space is exploited well in this promenade piece and the audience’s presence is cleverly manipulated to add a sense of crowd mass to any scene.’
Evelyn Curlet

The Stage
  King Arthur is staged as a promenade piece – a device which actually works very well. The Arcola stage, divided by rags and driftwood, successfully takes us away from the romantic visions of Camelot, whilst its low ceiling intensifies the idea of a cramped Britain barely able to contain such flux.
Belinda Williams

Rogues and Vagabonds
Eden's Empire
(September 2006)

' The torn, faded map of Europe that underscores Alex Marker’s elegant design subtly evokes the radical shift in world power that Eden was so comprehensively unable to navigate in the aftermath of World War II.'
Lucy Powell

Time Out
  '...design, performance and casting that would not disgrace the West End.'
Carole Woddis

Rogues and Vagabonds
  'Gemma Fairlie's fast-moving production, with political manoeuvring rendered literally in elegant quicksteps, Alex Marker's economical design and a versatile cast led by Jamie Newall as the sick and disappointed Eden, Kevin Quarmby as a Machiavellian Macmillan, Selva Rasalingham as Nasser and Daisy Beaumont as ultra-loyal Clarissa Eden serve the play well.'
Heather Neill

The Stage
 

'Gemma Fairlie's polished production, too, utilises every nook and cranny of Alex Marker's clever set to create a dark, shadowy atmosphere epitomised by its huge leather-buttoned club chairs situated at the four corners like sentinels of a dying Empire or the Allies four-quartered, partitioned Berlin.'
Carole Woddis

Rogues and Vagabonds
  'Director Gemma Fairlie keeps her actors whizzing on and off Alex Marker's neat set...'
Fiona Mountford

Evening Standard
The Representative
(July - August 2006)
One of the Top five shows in London The Independent
Four Stars
'The staging in the round is close; you peer into the action like a hidden camera. The production combines bareness with a docu-drama aesthetic... while little bits of discreet opulence - a flaring candelabra here, a goblet of fine wine there - emphasise the worldliness which slowly corrupts these good men who do nothing.'
Caroline McGinn

Time Out
'The initial impression is good, thanks to designer Alex Marker who has a habit of working wonders on a minimal budget. The theatre is set in the round with the atmosphere created by four large paintings drawn from Stations of the Cross... This is a magnificent, mammoth, must-see drama for anyone interested in history or serious 20th-century playwriting.'
Phillip Fisher

British Theatre Guide
Red Night
(November 2005)
'Designer Alex Marker cleverly turns the tiny stage into a trench, complete with sand bags and barbed wire.'
Fiona Mountford

Evening Standard
  Time Out Critics Choice
'How better to recreate the claustrophobia of the trenches than by staging World War I in a fringe theatre? For Two's Company's revival of 'Red Night' - the latest in their Forgotten Voices of the Great War series - designer Alex Marker has performed impressive feats with this pokey studio space. Initially, it's all sandbags and duckboards, along which a hapless platoon of British soldiers stretcher their comrades' corpses under enemy fire. For the play's cheerier moments, it's a behind-the-lines café, where Privates Hardcastle, Whitman, McTaggart et al convene to sing their blues away and flirt with the French hostesses.' Brian Logan

Time Out
  'A review of this show which did not mention the ingenious and imaginative design by Alex Marker would be incomplete and indeed a travesty…

Marker's set evokes all the brutality and danger of the trenches while opening and closing like a delicate but dirty chocolate box.

The fringes of the set are the quaint, safe, elegant drawing rooms: a constant reminder of the lives and loved ones that the soldiers were forced to leave behind.

This fades effortlessly into the barbed wire and sandbag shabbiness of the trenches which suddenly, magically, become the French café where the men go to find liberation from the shackles of trench life.

This safe environment is only a temporary outlet for the men, although it is here we see them at their most natural and open, and Marker mirrors this by folding the cafe back into the trenches again, blending old photos, letters, candles, boots into the backdrop to provide the harsh realities of the trench environment.' Adam Taylor

Rogues and Vagabonds
  '…The attention to detail - both set and costume - is highly impressive…' Derek Smith

The Stage
Lark Rise to Candleford
(September - October 2005)
‘Alex Marker’s set, whose rough hewn blocks, platforms and stairways are wittly transformed by simple props and the conviction of the performances into lively taverns, ploughed fields, homely hearthsides and narrow cobbled streets almost looks like a sepia tinted photograph…the staging is full of inspired moments… the production… creates an entire beguiling world that enfolds its audience in a warm embrace- a big achievement in a small- scale theatre’
Sam Marlow

The Times

'Designer Alex Marker has transformed the Finborough space into a selection of rustic barns and cottages, which the audience are invited to promenade as the action of the story progresses.'
Paul Vale

The Stage
  'With barely room to swing a cat, Alex Marker’s wooden platforms and steps work wonders, representing a whole variety of situations from fields to homes to streets to pubs.'
Carole Woddis

What’s on Stage

  'The production design is ingenious and charming, set all around the theatre space, so that the audience must promenade in order to fully experience the various interior and exterior locations of the village.'
Joanna Bacon

Rogues and Vagabonds
  ‘Alex Marker’s wooden set, with its ladders and mezzanines, is a stunning bit of craftsmanship’
Clair Whitefield

Music OMH.Com
  ‘The set (Designed by Alex Marker) constantly changes too so you never get too comfortable in one spot, and you become almost absorbed into the production, rather like the village gossip.’
Bronagh Taggart

The British Theatre Guide
  ‘You don’t feel as though you are ‘watching a play’, rather you are ‘being there’ and this feeling is quite hypnotic and compelling, it makes you want to go back again and again.’
Julia Hickman

Theatreworld Internet Magazine
  Time Out: Critics Choice  
Hush
(August - October 2005)

Four stars.
Andrew Burnet

The Scotsman
Albert's Boy
(July - August 2005)

'Designer Alex Marker has made interesting and beautifully detailed use of the space, which I am sure he will adapt ingeniously if this wonderful production gets the transfer it deserves.'
Joanna Bacon

Rogues and Vagabonds
  ' The conflict between the two men is lucidly realised…on Alex Marker's realistic set.'
Aleks Sierz

The Stage
  'The production [steps] out of its minutely realist mode to create a climactic evocation of the bomb.'
Robert Hewison

The Sunday Times
Hortensia and the Museum of Dreams
(May - June 2005)

'Anyone who has been to Cuba will instantly recognise the transformation the tiny Finborough stage has undergone. The walls, hung with old photos and curling images of the Madonna, are peeling, and brightly painted shutters struggle to keep out the piercing Caribbean sunlight. Designer Alex Marker has done a magnificent job.'
Fiona Mountford

The Evening Standard
 

'Alex Marker's set is richly evocative of Cuba's dilapidated glamour.'
Lucy Powell

Time Out
  'We are in Cuba. Before a word has been spoken, the audience is transported to the heat and colours and decaying fabric of the Latin American Island, realised by the accumulated detail and painterly imagination of Alex Marker's extraordinary set. He recently created an enchanted Victorian world in the Finborough's Trelawny of the 'Wells', and now has provided Cherub Theatre Company's production … with the perfect setting for Nilo Cruz's drama… The simple idea of using the room's structural walls, instead of denying them, and covering every space that is left available with set dressing, creates a stunning theatrical illusion. Though detailed, it is not cluttered. It raises small house theatre design to a new level.'
C J Sheridan

Rogues and Vagabonds
 

'…the set effortlessly evokes the crumbling colonial buildings of Cuba, with its peeling painted shutters and stained ochre walls.'
Cheryl Freedman

What's On in London

  'Director Michael Gieleta draws good performances from his leading actors. He also does a good job in creating the steamy atmosphere of Cuba with the assistance of designer Alex Marker.'
Philip Fisher

British Theatre Guide
Trelawny of the 'Wells'
(April - May 2005)

'Alex Marker's design ...deserves to win awards. It effortlessly transforms from stage to drawing room and then wings.'
Philip Fisher

British Theatre Guide
 

'Stage sets at the Finborough are a minor miracle, and the designer, Alex Marker, has shown great ingenuity.'
Michael Portillo

New Statesman
 

'It's a good production, with a 13-strong cast well marshalled on a tiny stage by director Phil Willmott and clever design by Alex Marker.'
Mike Parker

The Morning Star
  'Alex Marker has worked wonders with his design, adapting to the limitations of the Finborough Stage...'
Paul Vale

The Stage
  'A chief source of delight in watching this Trelawny are Alex Marker's pretty, colourful sets and resourceful use of the old pub room to conjure up Victoriana on a space not much larger that a toy theatre.'
C.J.Sheridan

Rouges and Vagabonds
  'Alex Marker's ingeniously flexible set.'
Timothy Ramsden

Reviewsgate.com
A Doll's House
(December - January 2004 - 2005)
'Ibsen argued that anyone who wished to understand him fully needed to know Norway, its "spectacular but severe landscape", its isolated inhabitants and it long dark winters. For the non initiate, they are depicted by set-designer Alex Marker's icy looking fjord, peeping through an all to flimsy domestic framework.'
Barbara Lewis

The Stage
  'The set design too was just as fabulous, right down to the most intricate of details, including a delicate decorated Christmas tree complete with presents tied up with string, it truly takes one back in time.'
Emma Whitelaw

Indielondon
  'The set creates the perfect tone for the play's chilly Scandinavian severity. The stage's back wall is painted with and icy moonlit Norwegian fjord. This environment permeates the household; the scene is replicated in two paintings which hang, beautifully spot lit on and imaginary wall.'
Paul Revel

Bucks free press
Happy Family
(October 2004)
'It's hard to fault this superb revival of Cooper's black comedy in which Alex Marker's traditional drawing room set hosts some wonderful comic timing from the cast and director.'
Colin Shearman

The Stage
London's Free Open Air Theatre Season
(July - September 2004)
Critics Choice:
Critics Choice:
Critics Choice:
Time Out
The Metro
Evening Standard
("Out and About)
  'Visually Captivating.'
Elizabeth Maloney

The Guardian
  'The Scoop's architecture is suited to Greek tragedy, its stone steps creating a creepy environment for the carpeted staircase up which Agamemnon walks to his doom.'
Paul Taylor

The Independent
Soldiers
(July 2004)
Critics Choice:
Critics Choice:

Time Out
The Times
  'Alex Marker contrives an amazingly atmospheric sense of Churchill commanding from his bunker bed and London's wartime operations room.'
Timothy Ramsden

Reviewsgate
Last updated: 7 February, 2008