When Five Years Pass

a set design for a surrealist play
to express the impossible physics of a dream
lorca-3-01

Written in 1931, but only produced after his death, When Five Years Pass is one of Lorca’s most surreal plays. It explores the inescapable cycles of desire, memory, and metaphor through a story of a young man whose old love is not how he remembers her, and his interactions with personified facets of both himself and her.


The design centered around ideas of surprising but organically-uncovered set pieces, unfolding and merging the way images do in a dream.

when five years pass

Dramaturgy | Illustration | Set Design

Adobe Illustrator • Vectorworks

Written in 1931, but only produced after his death, When Five Years Pass is one of Lorca’s most surreal plays. It explores the inescapable cycles of desire, memory, and metaphor through a story of a young man whose old love is not how he remembers her, and his interactions with personified facets of both himself and her.

The design centered around ideas of surprising but organically-uncovered set pieces, unfolding and merging the way images do in a dream.
when five years pass

Dramaturgy | Illustration | Set Design

Adobe Illustrator • Vectorworks

Written in 1931, but only produced after his death, When Five Years Pass is one of Lorca’s most surreal plays. It explores the inescapable cycles of desire, memory, and metaphor through a story of a young man whose old love is not how he remembers her, and his interactions with personified facets of both himself and her. The design centered around ideas of surprising but organically-uncovered set pieces, unfolding and merging the way images do in a dream.

Two early variations of the set, expressed in 6-panel storyboards​

Two early variations of the set, expressed in a 6-panel storyboard

Two early variations of the set, expressed in a 6-panel storyboard

Some process sketches of the main set pieces

A collection of diagrams detailing the unfolding nature of different set elements

Above: Some process sketches of the main set pieces

Below: Diagrams detailing the unfolding nature of different set elements

Final groundplan with notes and dimensions

Final groundplan with sightlines

An image of the final proposal for the set design.

An image of the final proposal for the set design.

Final groundplan with dimensions

Final groundplan with sightlines

Final groundplan with dimensions

you never call, you never write...

(get in touch!)
you never call, you never write...

(get in touch!)