Support America’s National Ballet Company® DONATE NOW
British designer Vicki Mortimer made her Royal Ballet debut in 2003 on Wayne McGregor’s Qualia and has since returned to work on McGregor’s Raven Girl (2013). In 2009 she designed Parthenogenesis in the Linbury Studio Theatre for ROH2, directed by Katie Mitchell. She made her Royal Opera debut in 2013 on Written on Skin and has since designed Lucia di Lammermoor for The Royal Opera, both directed by Mitchell. In the 2017/18 Season she returns to design the world premiere of Lessons in Love and Violence for The Royal Opera, also directed by Mitchell.
Mortimer studied at the Slade School of Fine Art. For Mitchell her opera designs include costumes for Orest (Dutch National Opera) and designs for Al gran sole carico d’amore (Berlin State Opera, Salzburg Festival), Neither (Berlin State Opera), The Winter’s Tale, After Dido and The Way Back Home (English National Opera), St Matthew Passion (Glyndebourne) and The Sacrifice, Jenůfa, Kát’a Kabanová and Jephtha (Welsh National Opera). Her other opera designs include, for Nicholas Hytner, Così fan tutte (Glyndebourne), and for David McVicar, Die Meistersinger von Nürnberg and Die Entführung aus dem Serail (Glyndebourne) and Wozzeck (Lyric Opera of Chicago). She works regularly with McGregor, credits including Yantra (Stuttgart Ballet), Genus (Paris Opera Ballet), Skindex (Nederlands Dans Theater) and Millenarium, Sulphur 16 and Aeon (Wayne McGregor | Random Dance).
For the National Theatre Mortimer has designed more than 25 productions, including The Plough and the Stars, The Threepenny Opera, The Silver Tassie, Othello, Hamlet, The Seagull and The House of Bernarda Alba. She has also worked for the Royal Shakespeare Company (including Uncle Vanya and The Winter’s Tale), on Broadway (costumes for Nine and Fiddler on the Roof) and for the Royal Court, Almeida, Donmar Warehouse and the Royal Dramatic Theatre, Stockholm, among others. She is a member of the Linbury Prize Committee and is on the steering committee for Birkbeck’s director training. Her many awards include the 2016 International Opera Award.