The 101 Dalmatians
Chichester Festival Theatre, Oaklands Park, Chichester, Saturday, December 20, to Saturday, January 3

Having designed all three productions at 2012’s Theatre On The Fly and two sets in one night for the Minerva Theatre double bill Miss Julie/Black Comedy, Andrew D Edwards seems to have become Chichester’s go-to designer for tricky projects.

And he may be in the midst of his biggest challenge to date as he helps bring Bryony Lavery’s adaptation of Dodie Smith’s classic children’s novel The 101 Dalmatians to the Festival Theatre.

“When [director] Dale Rooks called and said ‘There’s 101 children’ I took a deep intake of breath,” admits Edwards when he took on his first youth theatre job.

“The job is problem-solving – how to solve these difficulties and put a play on.

“It has happened with a couple of theatres – they send me a script and tell me to wait until I get to the last page until I give them a call because there’s a twist.”

For Edwards the first problem with The 101 Dalmatians was always going to be how to fit that number of children onstage all at once.

“When you first see the 101 children all yapping and barking it’s brilliant,” he says. “It makes you smile – if it didn’t have the full 101 what would be the point of doing the project?”

When he takes on a project his first point of contact is the script.

“When I’m reading something I’m sketching ideas as I go,” he says. “When you think visually, ideas jump out at you.

“This show flows very quickly, it jumps between locations, and when you have that many children on stage you should never use big bits of scenery. A thrust stage doesn’t lend itself to wheeling on too much – you have to keep the scenery light.

“I wanted to keep it magical and fun – it is a Christmas show so I wanted to create that magic.”

Edwards deliberately kept away from the Disney film version of the story – creating his own version of the villainess Cruella de Vil.

“There’s a style to her that everybody knows,” says Edwards. “Audiences have grown up with her. We are trying to reinvent her. It will be interesting to see how other people respond.”

There were also challenges with the different dogs in the story.

“There are different breeds and mongrels,” says Edwards. “We didn’t want to repeat the style of the costume. All you can do is research, draw and try things out in the fittings to see what works. One of the fun things has been looking at these wonderful websites where owners look like their dogs!

“We want to be able to see our performers, without putting lots of prosthetics and animal costumes on them. They are wonderful performers, so we don’t want them to get lost behind the costume.”

Edwards hopes to work in Chichester again in 2015, having designed for both the Festival and Minerva Theatres, and the 2012 Theatre On The Fly temporary pop-up venue built by architects Assemble which saw him design all three productions in the space.

“What’s great about theatre is the intimacy with the audience,” he says. “They have come to see something magical for an evening.”

He has kept up a working relationship with all three directors behind the Theatre On The Fly productions Blue Remembered Hills, Playhouse Creatures and Fred’s Diner.

“As a designer that space was a real gift,” he says. “Each production worked with the space in its own way.”

His next production, The Life And Times Of Fanny Hill, is with Michael Oakley, the director of Playhouse Creatures, at Bristol Old Vic, starring Caroline Quentin.

“As a designer you want something where you can be creative and push everyone’s imagination,” he says. “A play set in a living room can be quite frustrating.

“But you don’t want to do something which stamps all over a piece and gets in the way. If you can make a design which goes unnoticed then you’ve achieved what you have set out to do.”

Starts 7pm, 2pm matinees, 4pm Boxing Day, tickets from £10. Call 01243 781312.