Obituary - Nadine Baylis, influential stage designer known for large-scale work at the Edinburgh Festival

Baylis played an influential role in developing the way contemporary dance was presented on stage – justifying her belief that costumes must add an extra frisson and excitement to the choreography. But she was also an austere and stylish stage designer noted for the spare and sculptural quality of her sets. Such qualities were seen to excellent effect in many of the large-scale productions she created Scotland at the Assembly Hall in Edinburgh.

In the last decade of her life she moved from London to Thame in Oxfordshire. She lived a somewhat reclusive life and did not maintain contacts with her former colleagues and her death passed unnoticed for some time.

She can lay claim to be amongst the most prolific designers at the Edinburgh Festival – principally because the sets and costumes she created for Tom Fleming’s startling production of The Thrie Estaites was revived on two occasions. In all she designed at 12 Festivals production - the first dating back to 1968 when she provided sets for Prospect Theatre’s The Beggar’s Opera.

In 1972 she was asked by the director of London’s Young Vic, Frank Dunlop, to design a new musical which was to be presented in the Haymarket Ice Rink. It was to prove an historic show as it was by a new team: music by Andrew Lloyd Webber and lyrics by Tim Rice.

Joseph and the Amazing Technicolour Dreamcoat was Lloyd Webber and Rice's first real musical and had to be expanded in length for Edinburgh after a series of try-out showings. It was a smash hit in the Haymarket Ice Rink and transferred to London and Broadway within the year. Baylis gave the star, Gary Bond, a dazzling coat of many colours which had sliced panels so it spread out like a windmill as he twirled around the stage.

In 1983 Baylis designed for the Ballet Rambert and the following year she was presented with a major challenge by the director Tom Fleming to design The Thrie Estaites in the Assembly Hall. It was a tremendous undertaking and Baylis brought a sense of drama to the rapidly adapted hall. There was a backdrop of brilliant red curtains and regal costumes.

The following year the production returned and was performed in tandem with Sydney Goodsir Smith’s epic drama The Wallace. Two such challenges saw Baylis at her best and most imaginative. The Thrie Estaites returned for the 1991 Festival and again proved hugely successful.

Later productions at the Festival included Hamlet with David Threlfall, Schiller’s Mary Stuart with Hannah Gordon and Jill Bennett, and then, in 1990, a glorious set for Dunlop’s production of Treasure Island with Jimmy Logan.

Baylis had a canny understanding what would work on the difficult thrust stage at the Assembly Hall. She gave all her productions a majestic and imposing quality that added to the grandeur of the play.

Nadine Baylis was born in London and attended the Central School of Art and Design. She then assisted the designer Ralph Koltai who was to become a lifelong friend. In those early days Koltai often worked on the sets and Baylis did the costumes. Rudolf Nureyev saw her designs and asked Baylis to design Raymonda for Australian Ballet which he was preparing to dance with Margot Fonteyn. Baylis became recognised as a talented designer in her own right.

Her stage work included memorable productions for the Royal Shakespeare Company including the 1980 Romeo and Juliet with the men in jet black leather and the girls in hand-knitted silk dresses. Two years later Baylis returned for a triumphant production of Antony and Cleopatra starring Helen Mirren and Michael Gambon.

She designed over 40 productions for Ballet Rambert and introduced visually exciting decorated lycra and all-in-one-body tights for dancers. In 1978 she designed the eye-catching costumes for John Curry’s stage shows on ice.

ALASDAIR STEVEN