Peter Farmer (1936–2017). British theatre designer

Peter Farmer studied at Luton School of Art and Central School of Art, and very quickly began designing for ballet. One of Farmer’s earliest successes was Peter Wright’s production of Giselle for Stuttgart Ballet, which was later taken into the repertoire of The Royal Ballet, as well as other companies. Farmer worked internationally on both classical ballet and contemporary dance productions, including ten versions of The Sleeping Beauty, Frederick Ashton’s The Dream, Galina Samsova’s production of the Grand Pas from Marius Petipa’s Paquita, Kenneth MacMillan’s Winter Dreams, George Balanchine’s Theme and Variations, Robert Cohan’s Stages for London Contemporary Dance Theatre, Wright’s Coppélia for Birmingham Royal Ballet, and The Nutcracker and Swan Lake for English National Ballet. Later in his career Farmer supervised the recreation for The Royal Ballet of Christopher and Robin Ironside’s original designs for Ashton’s full-length Sylvia and Oliver Messel’s The Sleeping Beauty.