A performer stands centered on wooden planks beneath red and blue spotlights, arms lifted toward the light.

Arcola Theatre2025

Tristan und Isolde

The Production

ShatterBrain Productions and Regents Opera Ltd presented this intimate Grimeborn Festival staging of Wagner’s Tristan und Isolde at Arcola Theatre in August 2025. Performed in German with English surtitles and a new chamber arrangement, the production placed the audience on three sides for a stripped-back, close-up Wagner experience.

42 photographs in the curated edit

Director: Guido Martin-Brandis
Musical Director: Michael Thrift
Lighting Design: Davy Cunningham
Set & Costume Design: Caitlin Abbott
Photography: Steve Gregson

A hooded man in a dark coat reaches upward in saturated red light before crumpled metallic drapes.

Two women in green costumes face each other across wooden pallets beneath blue-white drapery.

A distressed woman clutches her chest under red light while a hooded man stands behind her.

A performer stands on an upper balcony holding coiled rope as another figure looks up from below.

A woman in green sings with arms open against reflective silver-blue drapes.

A woman in green presses both hands to her head in an anguished close-up against a blue backdrop.

A woman in grey-green costume tilts her face upward with one hand lifted in a dark spotlight.

A woman in grey embraces a woman in green from behind, both lit by cool blue light.

A seated violinist is lit by warm music-stand light while playing at the side of the stage.

A woman in green lifts a small open chest high as another figure is silhouetted in the foreground.

A woman in green raises a narrow wooden plank above her head before glittering blue foil.

A blurred woman in the foreground turns toward a stern man in a navy coat and red scarf behind her.

A woman holds a sword upright between herself and a bald man in a dark coat with a red scarf.

A bald bearded man in a dark coat and red scarf offers a metal goblet toward the audience.

On a dark stage, a man lies prone while a woman in green bends low nearby among pallet set pieces.

A couple embrace in soft focus at left while a woman in grey sings sharply in the background.

A woman reclines on a purple-draped bed beside a small lamp, drinking from a goblet in blue light.

Two women in blue light hold each other by the shoulders, their faces tense in close confrontation.

Red light floods a wide stage as a standing figure dominates the foreground and another singer stands in the distance.

Two performers reach upward in violet-blue light, framed by dark vertical rigging and white drapes.

A woman leans over a man collapsed beside a purple-covered bed, lit in blue and magenta.

A woman in green and purple stands in a narrow vertical frame, smiling upward with one hand raised.

A bald man in red light fills the foreground while two black-clad figures stand before white drapes behind him.

Two men in dark coats face each other closely in a low, black-backed spotlight.

A woman in green stands at the front of a wide stage with black-clad figures and red-lit shadows behind.

A headbanded man grips the face of a bald man in intense red light.

A blue overhead beam falls on a prone figure as two performers stand within a wide, dark stage space.

An older man in white gestures toward the audience while another man sits beside him on a bed.

Low across wooden planks, two men huddle under a blue shaft of light beside a prone figure.

A bald man in pale clothing stares upward in blue light while another figure lies blurred behind him.

Two men in pale clothing hold each other by the shoulders in a close, cool-lit exchange.

A man stands centered under a tight blue spotlight on the plank walkway, one arm raised.

A man in pale clothing sings with open hands in front of a red-and-blue metallic backdrop.

A man pulls a long white cloth from a prone body across the wooden planks under blue light.

A woman in gold-green cradles a man's head in her lap, singing over him against a dark blue backdrop.

A woman kneels over a prone man with arms thrown upward while a second woman stands in shadow behind.

From a distant view, a woman kneels beside a body on a red-lit mound and wooden planks.

A woman in gold-green reaches joyfully forward with a red-stained hand against a glittering blue backdrop.

A woman in pale gold-green costume raises both arms high, framed tightly by blue reflective drapes.

In a dark spotlight, a woman kneels beside a prone man on the plank walkway.

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The Playground Theatre, 8 Latimer Rd, London W10 6RQ2025

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