Stravinsky Petrushka Scottish Ballet, August 2009 Choreographer Ian Spink Lighting Peter Mumford

Reviews 

It is a twinkly, visually delightful half-hour. (The Guardian)

As the curtain rose for the world premiere on Friday night, you could almost hear a united intake of breath when the audience observed the stunningly realistic set design. (Edinburgh Guide)

Updated to the nineties in Yannis Thavoris’ well-executed design... (The Stage)

Yannis Thavoris's impressive factory set and performers' trailer (evokes] the richness of Benois... (Financial Times)

The realisation of 90’s Russia was breathtaking. From the smoking factory towers, to the puppeteer’s van, and the spectrum of Russian society, the moment the scene was revealed ‘Petrushka’ was visually spectacular. (Edinburgh Festivals Magazine)

It boasts superb design by Yannis Thavoris, vividly depicting what might easily be a contemporary St Petersburg street scene and there is a wonderful conceit of a lorry that also serves as the “puppets’” domain. (ballet.co.uk)

The city is brilliantly evoked by Yannis Thavoris’s set, with a backcloth of miserabilist Soviet apartment blocks behind the meat wagon that serves as the puppetmaster’s booth... (a) witty update... (Sunday Telegraph)

... an update to 1990’s Russia, with designer Yannis Thavoris’ post-industrial landscape shifting the shrovetide fair to street-market scenario. There is an authentically edgy feel to this, and many clever amusing parallels - the Nursemaids selling vodka or cheap meat out of prams, the Coachmen now itinerant breakdancers. Canteen workers jostle with downtown dudes, one street dancer is definitely high on something dubious, and high-heeled fur-hatted rich bitches flit to and fro. ... The entry of the white-suited magician and the reversing of the lorry-trailer to centre stage, dropping its side to reveal the puppets - the Strongman, the Showgirl and Petrushka - is great theatre... (Dance Europe magazine)

The hoardings of Yannis Thavoris’ set are plastered with English as well as Russian posters, tattered advertisements for Western goods. There’s still a Shrovetide fair, but its traders deal in black-market video recorders. Smoke rises from an industrial chimney; as night falls, lights come on in dilapidated blocks of flats. Thavoris’ three-dimensional designs are both grim and doll’s house-perfect... (Dancing Times magazine)