“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”.

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“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“.

“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 the text.”

On Abigail’s Party

“Director Natalie Abrahami and set designer Peter Butler do a great job of ensuring the audience are like flies on the wall glued to every awkward move by the party guests. Staged in the round there is literally nowhere to hide as the drinks flow and this car crash of a party implodes. The ’70s house is replete with shagpile rugs and G plan furniture, a real leather three-piece suite and a silver plated candelabra. In a house without walls, the facade of social niceties is stripped away and casual violence, bitter sniping and undignified vomiting are all vividly on show.”

On Last Quiz

“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”.

On A Taste Of Honey

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.