Production designer of ‘Wednesday’ talks about the Gothic look

• The eight-episode show has finally made it to Netflix.
• Mark Scruton, the production designer for the play, used the source material.
•  He chose to use the original source material for the elaborate stained-glass.

The Addams Family chose November 23—a ‘Wednesday’—as a day to once again spew their kookiness onto everyone’s screens, despite the fact that November and December are the months for the holiday season.

The eight-episode show Wednesday has in fact finally made it to Netflix, prolonging the eerie season with a more contemporary and edgy perspective on the infamously unsettling family.

Of course, translating the characters of Charles Addams would also require a skillfully performed production design in addition to the cast members’ performances, stunning costumes, and spectacular make-up. Mark Scruton, the production designer for the play, revealed to Variety that he made the decision to use the original source material as his main source of inspiration, notably for the elaborate stained-glass, Romanian forest, and shrunken head scenes.

In addition, Scruton admitted that he preferred the single-panel artwork from the early Chas Addams cartoons to the old Addams Family movies.

Tim Burton, the show’s producer, is renowned for his amazing body of work, which includes Beetlejuice, Edward Scissorhands, and Corpse Bride, to name a few; he is also said to be “pared back” in appearance, as Scruton noted.

There is nothing in the frame that isn’t supposed to be there, continued Scruton. The animation is also the same. There is no waste.

According to the production designer, Wednesday’s (Jenna Ortega) and Enid’s (Emma Myers) shared dorm room at Nevermore Academy wasn’t supposed to look out of place.

We wanted to divide it into a black-and-white side and a colourful side, but we couldn’t figure out how to do it without having it look out of place.

The notion spread that Enid had accomplished it on her own. A spider’s web-shaped window serves as the room’s centre point and harmonises with Wednesday’s more gothic style, as seen by the stained glass’s appearance that resembles a church.

The show’s production designer also found inspiration in the Victorian era in order to reflect the diverse cultures represented at Nevermore Academy.

“At Nevermore, there’s lots of different cultures. You’ve got gorgons, vampires, sirens, werewolves — it’s a melting pot,” according to Scruton, who continued, “Principal Weems’ office is the biggest example of that. She’s got the Gothic fireplace, but also a ’60s modernist desk, a very James Bond-style chair and a modern laptop. The actual room is this crazy mix of rococo and even Chinese architecture. That room was meant to be the hub of it all. The different styles come out from there.”

Scruton went on to elaborate on a few allusions made in the set design, such as those to Beetlejuice and Charlie and the Chocolate Factory.

Many of the storefronts in the village were directly lifted from Chas Addams drawings. The metal weather vanes fastened to the wall decorate the Weathervane coffee shop, he continued, adding that there is a florist, a cobbler, and a thrift store. There is a small shrunken head referencing “Beetlejuice” in Principal Weems’ office.

The Addams Family made its television debut in the 1964 television series of the same name after first appearing in Charles Addams’ New Yorker comics in the 1930s.

The renowned spooky family is currently back on television. Wednesday Addams is guided by the supernatural coming-of-age drama as she negotiates the boarding school where her parents first met.

In an effort to enhance her psychic skills, she switches between numerous schools; as a result, she ends up at Nevermore Academy, where she will eventually discover a secret that has troubled her family for a long time.

The series also stars Catherine Zeta-Jones as Morticia Addams, Luis Guzmán as Gomez Addams, and Isaac Ordonez as Pugsley Addams, among others, in addition to Ortega and Myers.

Netflix now offers Wednesday for streaming.

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