When director Siobhan Ginty and JONES Theatrical Group approached Studio Bound to design Metaverse of Magic, the brief was about building worlds that could travel. The production toured Sydney Coliseum Theatre, Canberra Theatre Centre, and QPAC Concert Hall between November 2023 and January 2024.
The show follows a protagonist named Lennox through four realms, each represented by a playing card suit: Legacy, Courage, Wisdom, and Creativity. Production designer Patrick Larsen’s job was creating distinct visual environments for illusion that could adapt to three different venue configurations.
Four Suits, Four Visual Languages
The narrative structure gave Studio Bound clear design parameters. Four realms, each requiring its own complete visual identity, each needing to transform believably from the others through projection mapping.
Legacy speaks the language of theatrical tradition: vintage aesthetics, red velvet, poster walls of classic magicians, a proscenium that anchors this realm in the history of the art form. Courage shifts into game show territory with geometric blocks, countdown timers, aggressive colour fields, and kinetic projection that creates energy through falling shapes and neon numbers. Wisdom creates contemplative space with blues and purples, floating word puzzles, spiralling card vortexes that slow audiences down and reward careful attention. Creativity explodes into full spectrum — every colour, digital matrix effects, multiple projection layers creating depth simultaneously.
Projection as Architecture That Appears and Disappears
Studio Bound used projection mapping to build architecture that could be constructed and removed without physical scene changes. The card vortex creates a tunnel effect using multiple surfaces at different depths, generating parallax as cards spiral inward. LED-edged rectangular frames suspended at different heights fill with projected content to create portals and spatial framing.
Each realm’s signature colour extends from projection through all lighting. Legacy in gold. Courage in red. Wisdom in blue and purple. Creativity in full spectrum. The colour system gives the production rhythm — audiences understand transitions between realms through colour before narrative confirms them. Theatrical fog makes projection beams visible, adding dimensional layers to what would otherwise be flat surfaces.
Designing for Illusion Mechanics
Magic shows have specific production design requirements that scenic work needs to accommodate. Hidden passages. Quick-change positions. Sightlines that protect the mechanics of illusions while revealing the spectacle. Studio Bound’s scenic architecture concealed entrance and exit points behind curtains and poster panels. Projection created visual focus during technically sensitive moments, directing audience attention precisely where it needed to be.
The interactive smartphone component added another layer of consideration: the design had to work whether audiences were fully focused on performers or splitting attention between devices and the stage. Immersive production design for contemporary audiences increasingly has to account for divided attention while still creating genuine presence.
What Touring Production Design Demands
Designing for a touring production is fundamentally different from designing for a permanent installation or a single-venue production. The design must work across three different theatre configurations without physical modifications significant enough to affect tour economics.
The collaboration with Siobhan Ginty, who co-created the show’s narrative, meant design and story developed simultaneously rather than sequentially — the four realms were not predetermined visual concepts to execute, but evolved through genuine creative collaboration. That process produces work where design and narrative are genuinely integrated rather than layered on top of each other.
Patrick Larsen is an Emmy Award-winning production designer and the founder of Studio Bound, based in Singapore. Over two decades, he has designed environments for global audiences — from the Expo 2020 Dubai ceremonies and Olympic broadcast sets to Las Vegas residencies, Broadway-scale theatrical productions, and permanent installations across Asia and the Middle East. Studio Bound takes projects from concept to build with one fully integrated team of designers, concept artists, technical drafters, and production managers. Read more at patricklarsen.studio or visit studiobound.sg
Further reading: How Ideas Actually Happen | Input, Processing, Output: The Creative Cycle That Actually Works
