Polly Sullivan

By Rajiv Joseph

Hampstead Theatre

Director Lisa Spirling

Vaudeville Theatre, West End

Ustinov Theatre Royal Bath

By Daniel Kehlmann, translated by Christopher Hampton

Director Laurence Boswell

By Matt Hartley

Hampstead Theatre Downstairs

Director Lisa Spirling

Hampstead Theatre Downstairs

By Sam Hoare

Director Tom Attenborough

By Dave Florez

Hampstead Theatre Downstairs

Director Tom Attenborough

Hampstead Theatre Downstairs/ Theatr Clwyd Emlyn Williams Studio

By Colette Kane

Director Mel Hillyard

By Alice Childress

Ustinov, Theatre Royal Bath

Director Laurence Boswell

By Jonathan Maitland

Park Theatre

Director Brendan O'Hea

By Andrew Keatley

Director Simon Evans

Hampstead Theatre Downstairs

By Michel Tremblay / Michael West translation

Director Laurence Boswell

Theatre Royal Bath - Ustinov

“Polly Sullivan’s set design is adorned with hugging statuettes that mock the family from all directions, and the impossibility of any physical intimacy is intensified by little tombstone lumps between the chairs. As mother Mary-Lou (Caitriona Ni Mhurchu) says, they are all “Alone. Together.” Striking and intense.“

Rosemary Waugh, The Stage

"The two pairs of characters sit in a row, facing us, engaging in two pairs of arguments without anyone ever looking at anyone else. At the far ends of Polly Sullivan’s dark, spare set, Liam (Paul Loughran) and Mary-Louise (Caitriona Ni Mhurchu) disagree on everything from his appetite for peanut butter to his appetite for sex. He relishes the freedom he has in the bar, hates the narrowness of his life at home and at work. And he lets her know about it.” 

Dominic Maxwell, The Times

By Phil Davies

Trafalgar Studios 2 and Hampstead Theatre Downstairs

Director Ed Hall

"What’s remarkable about Davies’s writing, though, and indeed about the three young actors in Edward Hall’s gripping production, is how little it hectors and how lifelike it feels. It’s angry, it’s witty, it makes degradation vivid and infuriating. It grooms the audience gently into its nightmarish narrative too. Sitting around a grey set by Polly Sullivan in this tiny studio theatre, we feel involved in the bickering and the emotional and physical violence we surround.” 
Dominic Maxwell,  The Times

"Clever little touches (by designer Polly Sullivan) denote changes in location such as the flashing neon sign of a kebab shop or a mattress dropping from the ceiling to depict Tia's squalid bedroom."
Lettie McKee, The Londonist

"This isn’t an easy evening but a very worthwhile one. Director Edward Hall concentrates his in-the-round production on essentials, Polly Sullivan’s pared-back design even gives a scene change drama and the raw-edged playing brings a caustic reality that makes you realise just how gullibly vulnerable some youngsters are today, how much they need protection."
Howard Loxton, British Theatre Guide

By April de Angelis

Theatre Clwyd

Director Lisa Spirling

By Jacqui Honess-Martin

Hampstead Theatre Downstairs

Director Lisa Spirling

Theatre Royal Bath Ustinov

Director Jeremy Sams

“Polly Sullivan’s period design works wonders in a small space.”
Dominic Maxwell, The Times

“Polly Sullivan`s opulent town and country sets make sumptuous French-design use of the smallish Ustinov stage”
Jeremy Brien, The Stage

“A pretty set from Polly Sullivan which resembles the French Impressionist movement.”
Kris Hallett, WhatsOnStage

“Polly Sullivan’s design honours the spirit of farce with 13 entrances/exits on two sets on the Ustinov’s compact stage, yet without Sams feeling obliged to use more than a few. And, as often in classical farces, the sexual dimension turns out to be of secondary importance to social or financial considerations of the plot. A glorious soufflé of a production: the kind that will convert people who think they dislike farce.”
Ian Shuttleworth, FT

“Polly Sullivan’s set morphs easily from opulent drawing room into a dining room paying homage to the Victorian penchant for being surrounded by stuffed creatures while eating. After the interval, the transformation into a country house setting is impressive and complemented by sumptuously detailed 19th Century French summer fashions.”
Claire Hayes, ReviewsHub

By Georges Feydeau

Theatre Royal Bath Ustinov

Director Laurence Boswell

“The frivolity of fin-de-siècle France is beautifully expressed through Polly Sullivan’s sets and costumes.”
Clare Brennan, The Observer

“Much like Feydeau, Polly Sullivan’s opulent set has borrowed from and built upon elements of Labiche’s Monsieur Popular”
Claire Hayes, ReviewsHub

By Michael Frayn

Hampstead Theatre Upstairs

Director Hamish McColl

By J B Priestley

Park Theatre

Director Hugh Ross

By Rose Heiney

Hampstead Theatre Downstairs

Director Tamara Harvey

By Annecy Lax and Hannah Davies

ice&fire - Red Gallery Shoreditch

Director Lisa Spirling

By Ali Taylor

Hampstead Theatre Downstairs

Director Lisa Spirling

By Michael Frayn

Rose Theatre Kingston

Director Lisa Spirling

“Lisa Spirling’s alert production, neatly designed by Polly Sullivan with some particularly naff Seventies costumes, finds all the strength of a farce that offers a good deal of human wisdom amid the unbuttoned hilarity.”  Charles Spencer, The Telegraph

“There is a lovely set from Polly Sullivan which completely and successfully places the piece in the 1970′s (as do the delightfully perfect, but accordingly cringe-making, in-vogue costumes: so much beige!) and evokes a real sense of the University cities, Cambridge or Oxford.” Stephen Collins, British Theatre.com

“The Rose’s seatless pit area — at the foot of the stage — has been turned into a manicured lawn on which some audience members lounge, merrily ignoring the sign that reads “Fellows Only On The Grass”.  Kate Bassett, The Times

“Polly Sullivan’s set suggests a classic quad with Virginia creeper. These trellises are cleverly removed to become bookcases when the action moves inside to a room where various drunken japes occur after the dinner.” Quentin Letts, The Dail Mail

By Colette Kane

Hampstead Theatre Downstairs

Director Lisa Spirling

By Michael Frayn

Rose Theatre Kingston

Director Lisa Spirling

"Polly Sullivan’s design has solved the notorious problem of width and lack of focus in the Rose by creating a thrust stage that immediately transforms the space into a manageable house for comedy." Michael Coveney, Whats On Stage ****

"...a thrust stage specially constructed for the show, bringing the couple right into the audience. The set is a cross section of a tired, bare little flat. Polly Sullivan (set and costume) evokes the previous lives lived out through the flat, with layers of different coloured paint, peeling triple layered wall paper finished off with a ghastly chintzy curtain." British Theatre Guide, Callie Swarbrick

"The set was perhaps one of my favourites so far this year: throughout the scenes it so easily went from an empty shell to a home and was then so swiftly packed up into an empty shell again. This is no easy feat and nearly impossible in the real world, yet Polly Sullivan successfully pulled it off without making me feel like she were trying too hard to portray the dreams and hopes of a couple with an improbable amount of props and set pieces. " Heather Deacon, One Stop Arts

Tricycle Theatre

Director Nicolas Kent

“Designer Polly Sullivan elegantly conjures a wide range of locations” Charles Spencer, The Telegraph ****

“I can only say that I emerged, after a long day, admiring the vivid clarity of Kent's production and Polly Sullivan's design, the versatility of an 11-strong cast including Shereen Martin, David Yip and Paul Bhattacharjee, and the heroic ambition of the enterprise.” Michael Billington, The Guardian ****

“A versatile cast juggle characters, while Polly Sullivan’s minimal set includes sobering back projections of explosions that quietly underscore the gravity of the debates on stage.” Sarah Hemming, Financial Times

Polly Sullivan's inventive design conjures a string of different locations, and a cast of 11 confidently juggles a variety of roles. Henry Hitchins Evening Standard ****

"There’s a very good integration of historic footage and newsreel – design, video, lighting and sound bouquets to Polly Sullivan, Douglas O'Connell, Howard Harrison and Tom Lishman." Michael Coveney, Whats On Stage ****

The Riots
By Gillian Slovo

A Walk In The Woods
By Lee Blessing

Tricycle Theatre

Director Nicolas Kent

"The play's two metaphors, of the woods in which the pair walk to get away from the stifled atmosphere of the negotiating table, and the vision – clear or cloudy – of the negotiators themselves, hang over the drama, reminding us of the grander political narrative. Polly Sullivan's design subtly evokes the violence of the era, while also providing a pleasantly non-combative space for the action to take place. The passing of the seasons – intimated by a handful of autumn leaves here, a winter coat there – provides a tidy frame for the narrative". Jo Caird, Whats On Stage ****

"The drama is based on a real series of meetings in 1982 between negotiators for the two great superpowers and takes place in a beautifully conceived Swiss wood, courtesy of designer Polly Sullivan." Philip Fisher, British Theatre Guide

By Lou Ramsden

Soho Theatre Upstairs

Director Lisa Spirling

“With Polly Sullivan's traverse design of a woodland cottage, the effect is to create a kind of fairy-tale realism mixing the folksy and the modern - David Lynch meets the Brothers Grimm, with ghastly echoes of Josef Fritzl." Patrick Marmion, Time Out

“Buckle for Dust’s production is nicely contained in traverse with a set full of spooky dolls and dark furniture.” Daisy Bowie-Sell, The Telegraph

“Played on a traverse stage, the walls of Polly Sullivan's set painted with the trees to remind us of the dark fairytale forest outside, red lighting for scene changes that gives a horror comic artifice to its Grand Guignol incidents, you do not feel for these people but are kept watching by the disintegration of values.” Howard Loxton, British Theatre Guide

“Polly Sullivan’s oppressive set, with its suggestions of dense forest and isolation, emphasises the fairy-tale darkness of the play” Natasha Tripney, The Stage

“Polly Sullivan’s deceptively cosy set works well in the compact environs of the Soho Theatre, emphasising the closed in world of the action.” Exeunt, Tracey Sinclair.

By Ali Taylor

Theatre 503

Director Lisa Spirling

"Designer Polly Sullivan deserves credit for her clever use of the limited confines of Theatre 503. A cold, sparse atmosphere is created on stage in perfect reflection of a setting where the mist and rain are so constant they “don’t even have a horizon”. " Theo Bosanquet, Whats On Stage ****

"The contrast between the marine blue of the set and the orange frame surrounding the stage is striking on entry to the theatre.  The design is unassuming but effective in the intimate space of Theatre503." Eva Ritchie, British Theatre Guide

"Polly Sullivan’s literal framing of the stage allowed oceans of offstage action to occur in my imagination. The stage’s rising three layers of beach support the play’s multi-layered writing, a real triumph for Sullivan and her collaboration with director Lisa Spirling, who has delivered the most unified piece of theatre, the best acting and design that I have seen at 503." Adam Maher, Epoch Times

"This new play by Ali Taylor is a salty-sweet seascape in shades of blue, green and grey. And Lisa Spirling's spare, wistful production, acted with raw immediacy, is entrancing." Sam Marlowe, The Times

"The simple set captures the grit and mist of the coastal location well, and a sense of loss and loneliness permeates, a sense of people floating, lost, and grabbing onto one another for comfort."Natasha Tripney, Music OMH ****

By Richard Norton Taylor

Tricycle Theatre

Director Nicolas Kent

2016 Wermland Opera, Karlstad, Sweden

Director James Grieve

Designer Lucy Osborne

Not Such Quiet Girls

by Jessica Walker

Opera North/ Leeds Playhouse

Director Jacqui Honess-Martin

West Side Story

Manchester Royal Exchange

Director Sarah Frankcomb

Set designer Anna Fleischle

Costume designer Polly Sullivan

Vardy v Rooney: the Wagatha Christie Trial

By Liv Hennessy

Ambassadors Theatre

Director Lisa Spirling