Model, Howie the Rookie

Staged 1999, Bush Theatre, London, UK

“My first stage designs were experiments in framing light. The Bush Theatre was a room above a West London pub with an audience of 75 people. Mark O’Rowe’s play Howie the Rookie is a pair of potent, visceral monologues set in the housing estates of Tallaght on the outskirts of Dublin, Ireland. I perforated a concrete plane with a line of light. This line conveyed both a burning horizon and a road marking on a highway.”

—Es Devlin

Three-quarter view of a black rectangle with a line of white light running along the middle; yellow light glows from beneath the rectangle. The rest of the image is all black.
Production photograph, Howie the Rookie
By Mark O'Rowe, staged 1999, Bush Theatre, London, UK
Courtesy of Es Devlin
Read More
Top view of a white model of a small figure at the base of a rectangle with a long fissure running along the middle from which white light glows.
Es Devlin, Model, Howie the Rookie, Paint on laser-cut MDF and LED, recreated for exhibition.
By Mark O'Rowe, staged 1999, Bush Theatre, London, UK
Photo: Elliot Goldstein © Smithsonian Institution
Read More
White line drawing, on a black background, of a person standing on a rectangular base surrounded by two other horizontal rectangles depicting 3D space.
Es Devlin, Study, Howie the Rookie, Graphite on paper.
By Mark O'Rowe, staged 1999, Bush Theatre, London, UK
Courtesy of Es Devlin
Read More