The Case for Less: Why Restraint Is the Most Radical Choice in Live Design

Session details:

The Case for Less

We live in an age where almost anything is achievable on stage. The tools available to designers are more powerful, more accessible, and more varied than at any point in the history of live entertainment. And yet the moments that stay with audiences are frequently the simplest ones.

This talk explores what it means to put technology genuinely in service of story, performance, and audience, and why the most powerful design choices are often about what you leave out.

At its centre is a unique case study: three productions of American Psycho, the musical, across thirteen years, with the same creative team and an exponentially growing toolkit. From two projectors and instinct at the Almeida in 2013, through ten projectors on Broadway in 2016, to a single LED floor and three visual elements in 2026, the design moved consistently toward reduction. More was always possible. Less was always the answer.

Drawing on this journey alongside two decades of work across musical theatre, concert touring, and large-scale live entertainment at FRAY Studio, the talk is built around three principles. That limitation generates clarity, because restriction forces every element to earn its place. That rules only have power if you're willing to break them, and holding your work lightly enough to fracture it when the moment demands is a discipline, not a weakness. And that the human is always the point: the performer on stage, the collaborator in the room, the audience in the dark.

This is not an argument against technology. It is an argument for asking harder questions before you use it: what does the story need?