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Es Devlin

June 2026

  • Rufus Norris leans against a concrete wall with his arms crossed, looking into the distance

    ‘It’s a relief … I’m irrelevant!’: Rufus Norris on life after the National Theatre

    He stood down as boss of the NT – and threw himself into kayaking, writing and DIY. The veteran director talks about his new start aged 60, mourning his mother – and directing Death of a Salesman in Turkish

May 2026

  • Two silhouetted figures stand before a projected sketch portrait of a person wearing glasses, which is morphing into another person

    ‘We can all coexist’: artist Es Devlin uses selfies to unite UK in portrait of a nation

    A National Portrait for the National Portrait Gallery aims to bring people together in increasingly atomised country

April 2026

  • A pair of hands shape a piece of clay while various small pots sit on a table in front of them.

    What can 160-million-year-old clay tell us about AI and ethics? Inside Es Devlin’s tech and pottery summit

    The great artist and designer has summoned spiritual leaders, AI researchers and academics to try their hands at ceramics – and debate their wide-ranging positions on where tech is taking humanity

September 2024

  • ‘Just brilliant fun’ … Hilson Agbangbe in Wonder Boy, directed by Sally Cookson.

    ‘Our Romeo even impressed the school bullies’: stars of stage on the power of drama in schools

    Being taught drama can transform your life. Actor David Oyelowo, writer James Graham, set designer Es Devlin and more recall their own awakenings – and their inspirational, unforgettable teachers
  • David Oyelowo as Coriolanus

    Coriolanus review – David Oyelowo keeps you waiting and Es Devlin’s design is to die for

    The drama is underpowered until the end but what Lyndsey Turner’s production lacks in feeling it makes up in style
  • Es Devlin seated on the floor working on several portraits at once

    ‘We need safe routes’: artist Es Devlin to open refugee portrait show

    Fifty drawings of displaced people will be shown in a London church, in collaboration with UN refugee agency

April 2024

  • Christos Papadopoulos’s Larsen C.

    Shortlist unveiled for dance’s answer to the Turner prize

    Choreographers from the US, Brazil, Greece and Portugal in the running for the £40,000 inaugural Rose international dance prize

February 2024

  • Free Your Mind, with stage design by Es Devlin, at Aviva Studios, Manchester, November 2023.

    A cultural manifesto to breathe new life into our dying high streets

    Letter: Flexible auditoriums and art displays from museums could help to revive urban community spaces, says Peter Higgins

January 2024

  • Outernet visitors look at the Royally Big Portrait, a giant digital portrait of King Charles

    ‘Engage their curiosity’: immersive art can boost UK high streets, says artist

    Es Devlin says defunct department stores could be art buildings, and big screens ‘reclaimed’ for public for art

October 2023

  • Free Your Mind at Aviva Studios.

    Free Your Mind review – The Matrix triumphantly reloaded by Danny Boyle and co

    This dance adaptation of the cult sci-fi movie is a work of breathtaking ambition that fully inhabits Manchester’s stunning new £240m venue
  • Es Devlin at her studio in North Dulwich, London.

    On my radar
    On my radar: Es Devlin’s cultural highlights

    The ​s​et designer ​and artist on ​the most extraordinary opera, a gut-wrenching Sudanese-American poet and ​a writer’s new angle on economics
  • The coolest party of the year … Free Your Mind at Aviva Studios, Manchester.

    Free Your Mind review – Danny Boyle’s Matrix reboot is a thrilling shock to the system

    The director’s collaboration with hip-hop dance company Boy Blue, designer Es Devlin and writer Sabrina Mahfouz conveys the march of AI

February 2023

  • The Lehman Trilogy at the Gillian Lynne Theatre A co-production with Neal Street Productions

    The Lehman Trilogy review – Sam Mendes’ banking saga returns with dividends

    Hadley Fraser, Nigel Lindsay and Michael Balogun are astonishing as the 18th-century bankers who helped to define the American dream

September 2022

  • ‘I’ve been working nonstop for four months’ … Devlin among her drawings.

    Es Devlin: ‘Has everything I’ve made been worth the resources? Probably not’

    The multihyphenate set designer has worked with Adele, Kanye West and Beyoncé – but her new project is a shrine to endangered species whose stars are pipistrelles, planthoppers and bearded tits

June 2022

  • The National Theatre, London

    How do you make a lavish spectacle sustainable? Theatre’s radical green agenda

    A meeting of minds at the National Theatre showed ways to stage drama along environmentally sound lines. But is everyone on board?

May 2022

  • A Strange Loop, Six and The Music Man have all been nominated for Tony awards.

    Tony awards 2022: A Strange Loop leads the nominees, while British talents are lauded

    Three actors from The Lehman Trilogy go head to head, the musical Six picks up eight nominations and the production MJ – about Michael Jackson – is also recognised

February 2022

  • Lennie James and Paapa Essiedu in A Number.

    A Number review – Lennie James and Paapa Essiedu scintillate as father and sons

    The powerhouse duo’s effortless chemistry and emotional realism brings Caryl Churchill’s cloning tragedy blazing into new life

October 2021

  • Rowan Moore

    Notebook
    double quotation markWhat’s our message to outer space? We are not so brilliant here on Earth

    Rowan Moore
    The prize-winning poetry of the Azerbaijani president’s daughter and the Dubai Expo both lack inspiration

May 2021

  • Gavin Williamson

    Plans for 50% funding cut to arts subjects at universities ‘catastrophic’

    Artists and musicians speak out against proposal by education secretary and Office for Students

November 2020

  • An Inspector Calls

    Tristram Kenton at the Guardian
    Sets appeal: staggering designs for theatre and dance – in pictures

    We mine the archive of Guardian photographer Tristram Kenton for the great creations of designers including Tim Yip, Rae Smith and Tom Scutt
    Gallery23
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