Peter is a visual artist designing set and costume for theatre and performance.
His work in theatre includes Shut Up, I’m Dreaming at the National Theatre; A Taste of Honey at the Royal Exchange Manchester (2024 UK Theatre Awards nomination for best play revival); Boy Parts at Soho Theatre; Short Big Show for Hope at Somerset House as Co-director; The Shape of Things for Park 200 (2023 Stage Debut Award nomination for Best Design); The Last quiz night on Earth at The New Vic: Attempts on Her Life at Guildhall School of Music & Drama; Anthem & Horizon at the Bush; The Beat of Our Hearts at Exeter Northcott; Patient Light on UK tour: Mnemonic at The National Theatre (as associate set designer) and Cabaret: Prologue at the KitKat Club, Playhouse Theatre (as associate set designer).
Peter trained at Central Saint Martins where he graduated with a First Class BA (hons) in Performance Design & Practice and has since returned to teach and lead workshops.
Shortly after graduating he was awarded The 2021 Linbury Prize for Stage Design.
2025:
Abigail’s Party | Royal Exchange Manchester
| Director Natalie Abrahami
In Praise of Love | Orange Tree Theatre
| Director Amelia Sears
L’Orfeo | Graz Schauspielhaus | The Ring Award Finals
| Director Franciska Éry
The Last Stand of Mrs. Mary Whitehouse | Nottingham Playhouse
| Director Sarah Frankcom
Awards + Nominations:
The Ring Award 2025 | finalist
The Ring Award Audience Award 2025 | won
The Ring Award Audience Award 2025 | won
The Arts Foundation Futures Award 2025 | shortlisted
2024 UK Theatre Awards nomination for best play revival
A Taste of Honey | nomination
2023 Stage Debut Awards: Best Design
The Shape of Things | nomination
2021 Linbury Prize for stage design | won
Reviews + Press:
“Anna Marsland’s New Vic production excels by creating the look and atmostphere of a welcoming local boozer in its in-the-round-space - even more impressive when you consider that designer Peter Butler’s set doesn’t sctually include a bar”.
- Chris Bartlett | The Stage
“Grit and hope are fused together in Peter Butler’s set. Metal beams resemble cranes that allude to the industrial site – in one argument, they lower and compress the characters as though they can’t escape it. They’re also lined with carnival bulbs like dreams overhead, which Robinson often looks up at. Her face seems a bulb itself, lighting up with hope”.
- Matt Barton | WhatsOnStage
- Chris Bartlett | The Stage
“Grit and hope are fused together in Peter Butler’s set. Metal beams resemble cranes that allude to the industrial site – in one argument, they lower and compress the characters as though they can’t escape it. They’re also lined with carnival bulbs like dreams overhead, which Robinson often looks up at. Her face seems a bulb itself, lighting up with hope”.
- Matt Barton | WhatsOnStage
“Designer Peter Butler’s imaginative but unobtrusive, period-perfect set and shabbily stylish costumes complete the effect of a production that breathes fresh life into a play that, six decades on, still has the power to connect”.
- Chris Bartlett | The Stage
- Chris Bartlett | The Stage
Peter Butler has really accentuated the dreamy realism of A Taste Of Honey. There are all the authentic looking furnishings of a sparse, shabby rented flat with few touches of homeliness but suspended above the bleakness is a vast construction that can illuminate the space with fairground bulbs. Like a skeleton of a carousel it looms over the stage with echoes of the Salford gasworks and when illuminated by Lighting Designer Simisola Majekodumni there is the sudden warm glow of endless possibilities in this usually drab environment.
- Live Art Alive
- Live Art Alive
Interviews + Features:
“Kickstarting the careers of previous winners such as Es Devlin, Peter Butler and Rose Revitt, the Linbury Prize has been spotlighting the next generation of theatre set design talent since its inception in 1987“
- Wallpaper Magazine
“It was really freeing because it meant that I could respond to it by way of feeling, rather than having a script and responding to the emotions evoked from a text.”
- Interview, Drama & Theatre | March 2023
“Kickstarting the careers of previous winners such as Es Devlin, Peter Butler and Rose Revitt, the Linbury Prize has been spotlighting the next generation of theatre set design talent since its inception in 1987“
- Wallpaper Magazine
“It was really freeing because it meant that I could respond to it by way of feeling, rather than having a script and responding to the emotions evoked from a text.”
- Interview, Drama & Theatre | March 2023