Sound Designs by Gareth Fry - 2019

Draw Me Close - VR experience at the Young Vic Theatre

I created the sound design on this mix of live performance, virtual reality and animation. Performed at the Young Vic Theatre. Developed by the National Theatre’s Immersive Storytelling Studio and the National Film Board of Canada. Written and Directed by Jordan Tannahill. Official website

Alys, Always - Bridge Theatre

Working again with director Nick Hytner, set designer Bob Crowley, lighting design Jon Clark, costume designer Christina Cunningham; and with the glorious looping cello compositions of Grant Olding, played live by Maddie Cutter.

Barbershop Chronicles - UK tour and Camden Roundhouse

Barbershop Chronicles continued wowing audiences. Following its 2018 US tour it returned home to tour the UK before an extended run at Camden’s Roundhouse. Directed by Bijan Sheibani.

Stellar Quines M*****classes sound design workshop

I ran a one-day workshop for Stellar Quines as an introduction to their excellent m*****classes sound design artist development scheme, supporting women looking to move into theatre sound design.

Workshop for Theatre O’s Sheriff

I spent a week working with the wonderful Theatre O developing their new work, Sheriff

Sound design workshops for NSDF, Rose Bruford and Birkbeck director’s course

Book: Sound Design for the Stage

My first book was published by Crowood Press. More details here

Rekorder-land Magic Leap experience

I created the sound design (with associate Mike Winship) for this mixed reality experience at the Underbelly on London’s South Bank this summer. It uses a mix of strategically placed speakers and spatialised audio within Magic Leap headsets to transport visitors to a magical forest….

All Kinds of Limbo - National Theatre’s Wolfson Gallery - VR experience

This is an immersive performance piece using room-scale VR, volumetric capture and holographic projection. Composed by Nibiya Brandon and Raffy Bushman. Directed by Toby Coffey. The installation is in the Wolfson Gallery within the National Theatre.

V&A Unframed

I worked with film-maker Emily Harris, having previously working on her film for the V&A exhibition Glastonbury: Land and Legend, to create this film for the V&A’s exhibition at the 2019 Prague Quadrennial. We created a 5.1 mix for the film, plus placed specific sounds and interviews in speakers concealed in a model box created by Tortoise in a Nutshell’s designer, Amelia Bird.

The Bookshop

I’ve designed the sound for this short film directed by long-term collaborator Susan Lynch, starring The Charlatan’s singer Tim Burgess. With beautifully recorded sound from Richard Miller, Foley from the Foley Factory, and mixing from Conor Kelly at Goldcrest. IMDB

Bastille’s Doom Days - Still Avoiding Tomorrow

I created the sound design for the launch of Bastille’s album, Doom Days. Working with writer Charlotte Bogard Macleod, and my team of Mike Winship, Ella Wahlstrom and Helen Skiera, we developed and designed three stories, told simultaneously using binaural sound over wireless headphones. The stories and sound design interwove themes and lyrics from the album with a binaural soundscape and Bastille’s music. After the 40 minute performance, the audience moved next door where Bastille performed the full album live.

NME review

Invisible Cities - Manchester International Festival

It was an epic journey to bring Invisible Cities to the derelict and acoustically-challenging Mayfield train depot for the Manchester International Festival. Combining theatre, dance, projection mapping, some huge scene changes, and music from Dustin O’Halloran & Adam Bryanbaum Wiltzie of A Winged Victory for the Sullen. This has been another collaboration with 59 Production’s Leo Warner and Jenny Melville. It features choreography from Sidi Larbi Cherkaoui, and dance by Rambert.

Film4 Summer Screen at Somerset House

Still No Idea

UK tour. Directed by Lee Simpson.

We made No Idea in 2010, and developed Still No Idea from it in 2018 before a UK tour and run at the Royal Court Theatre. Still No Idea tours the UK this autumn.

Z U R&D

I spent a week in Brazil and a couple of weeks in London working with Z U UK, developing a new piece of work, working also with sound designer Ross Flight, and artists Nueve Voltios

You Say You Want A Revolution?

I worked with film director Emily Harris on her feature length documentary, You Say You Want A Revolution?, which took some of the documentary material she filmed for the V&A Museum’s exhibition of the same name, and expanded it with new interviews to look at how the finished and unfinished revolutions of the late 1960s changed the way we live today and think about the future. Interviews include Yoko Ono, Twiggy, Stewart Brand, Michael Lang, Peter Coyote, Country Joe MacDonald and many more. The film premiered at the Mill Valley Film Festival, not far from the birthplace of many of the revolutions featured in the film.

Harry Potter and the Cursed Child - Melbourne and San Francisco

HPATCC opened in Melbourne at the start of the year, again to critical acclaim. It’s due to open in San Francisco in late 2019.

Leonardo: Experience a Masterpiece - National Gallery

I worked with 59 Productions to create the sound design for this innovative new exhibition at the National Gallery. The exhibition takes a deep dive into just one single painting, the Virgin on the Rocks, by Leonardo Da Vinci. It examines the natural environment that inspired the piece, the use of light, the religious inspirations, and how it differs from the first version of the paining he made.

The Arrival

Bush Theatre. Directed by Bijan Sheibani.