Press

FUSED (Project Arts Centre, Cube Theatre, December 2014)

Zia Holly’s set is delightful and complex. The bright cartoonish changeable pieces constantly transfix the audience into the video game atmosphere and provide elements of humour, such as a ‘loading’ piece that is brought across the stage as the sets are changing.

Reviewer: Sophie Everton Ryan, December 4th 2014
http://www.thepublicreviews.com/fused-project-arts-centre-dublin/

It's all "I'm your broken doll, and you're my puppeteer" with this live, point-and-click videogame adventure. With lighting and a kitschy,caricaturish set design from wunderkind Zia Holly, the audience gets to play God with theprotaganist (Ste Murray) as he challenges the audience to safely shepherd him through increasingly complex scenarios whilst abiding by the rules of the traditional point-and-click video game.

Reviewer Kate Coleman, December 3rd 2014, http://dublin.lecool.com/

The Last 5 Years (Project Arts Centre, Cube Theatre, June 2014)

The set, designed by Zia Holly, catches the eye from the moment the audience walk into the theatre. Simple, but always with something to look at, it’s minimal approach to props nicely frames the live band in the background of the set.

Reviewer: Ciara Murphy 27/06/2014
http://www.thepublicreviews.com/the-last-five-years-project-arts-centre-dublin/

The Separation (Project Arts Centre, Cube Theatre, June 2014)

Performed on a modest thrust stage, with audience surrounding the action, it is configured for tension: the portentous stabs of Edward Lewis’s sound design and ominous silhouettes of Zia Holly’s excellent lighting suggest a world closing in on the picture-house outline of Amy Jane Cook’s domestic set.

Reviewed by Peter Crawley, June 5 2014,
http://www.irishtimes.com/culture/stage/review-the-separation-1.1821932

Lighting plays an important role and Zia Holly’s lighting design creates an effective tone that works fluidly with the production.

Reviewer: Ciara Murphy 11/06/2014
http://www.thepublicreviews.com/the-separation-project-arts-centre-dublin/

Way to Heaven (Project Arts Centre, Space Upstairs, December 2013)

Rosemary McKenna directs with precision, and Zia Holly’s striking set, predominately a forest of microphones on stands, perfectly evokes both the natural setting of Theresienstadt and the symbolic need for us, in our time, to hear the truth, amplified.

Reviewed by Susan Conley, 14 December 2013
http://www.irishtheatremagazine.ie/Reviews/Current/Rough-Magic-SEEDS--Way-to-Heaven

HUMAN CHILD (Smock Alley, Boys School, June 2013)

“The set, designed by Zia Holly, is minimalist, consisting of a white and green painted wooden bedframe, two wooden chests, and two coatstands on either side of the stage, holding assorted hats, coats and scarves. Little do we know how intricate this masterfully designed yet seemingly simple set is, and how it, in conjunction with Holly's impressive lighting design, will be transformed into the magical and imaginative land of the fairies. Lelia's one-sheet bedroom fort becomes an expansive, patched-together canopy of innocent blues; coloured fabrics have infinite narrative uses, and swift scenery transitions are expertly undertaken by the performers.”

ITM by Helen Cusack Reviewed 05 July
http://www.irishtheatremagazine.ie/Reviews/Current/Human-Child

“Designer Zia Holly pulls off one hell of a scene change, blanketing us with a sense of childlike wonder that blocks out the adult world”

Posted by Chris McCormack Tuesday, July 2, 2013
http://musingsinintermissions.blogspot.ie/2013/07/collapsing-horse-human-child-while.html

“one particular set-change eliciting gasps of wonder and leaving the (mainly adult) audience feeling as giddy as five-year olds.”

“If the team behind Human Child spent their time in school wishing they were in space, then let’s be grateful: there is more wit and ambition present in Human Child than in many much larger-budget productions I have seen this year. When it’s this good there is nothing wrong with being away with the fairies.”

by Nicole Flattery Posted by Meg.ie on July 1, 2013
http://www.meg.ie/human-child-at-smock-alley/#sthash.4NbEQirF.dpuf

"A special mention goes to the unaccredited fifth protagonist, the stage itself, which effortlessly becomes as integral a part to the play as the characters, morphing and changing smoothly. As in “Monster/Clock”, the near-bare stage is a testimony to the talent of the crew: despite its simplicity (at a first glance, bordering on plainness) the swift, experienced moves of the cast and the skills of the lighting directors give way to a fascinating world that expands well beyond the Smock Alley setting. Children will undoubtedly be delighted by the mesmerising (and nicely executed) music and the glistening lights, and, thanks to the passionate and absorbing performances, will need little else to picture a world of fairies and talking bears."

Written by: Laura Gozzi Published June 26, 2013
http://totallydublin.ie/theatre/theatre-features/review-human-child/

Broken Promise Land (Theatre Upstairs at Lanigan's, Eden Quay, February 2013)

The piece is executed with simple clarity, with director Aoife Spillane-Hinks and set designer Zia Holly giving Rendulic enough space to vary the settings for her memory scenes while also keeping her pretty confined in a way that reminds us how her choices have reduced her to inauspicious surroundings from which she may wish or need to escape.

by Harvey O'Brien Reviewed 07 March 2013
http://www.irishtheatremagazine.ie/Reviews/Current/Broken-Promise-Land

Clear_the_Air (Theatre Upstairs at Lanigan's, Eden Quay, February 2013)

·   ‘Director Ronan Phelan maintains a steady rhythm on Zia Holly’s effective recording-studio set’

Irish Times- by Peter Crawley Reviewed 14 February 2013
http://www.irishtimes.com/newspaper/features/2013/0214/1224330005622.html

·   ‘ Zia Holly’s atmospheric set and lighting’

Irish Theatre Magazine - by Miriam Haughton Reviewed 05 February 2013
http://www.irishtheatremagazine.ie/Reviews/Current/Clear-the-Air

·   ‘ A subtly effective lighting set-up augments the tone, whether emulating a confessional glare or a conspiratorial darkly-lit one-on-one, directing our attention or pulling back to push everything out in the open.'

Goldenplec, Live Reviews - by Justin McDaid Reviewed February 8, 2013
http://www.goldenplec.com/clear_the_air-at-theatre-upstairs-at-lanigans-bar-review/

BROADENING (The Lir Theatre, Studio 2, September 2012)

· ‘Rock-solid direction by Ronan Phelan is greatly helped by Zia Holly’s brilliant lighting design’

Irish Theatre Magazine - by Meadhbh Mc Hugh Reviewed 12 September 2012 *****
http://www.irishtheatremagazine.ie/Reviews/Current/Absolut-Fringe--BROADENING

Purple (Project Arts Centre, Cube Theatre, February 2012)

· ‘and the set design, by Taka, demarcates this “bomb shelter” as a symbolic space, framed between black borders like a widescreen movie, while Zia Holly’s clean, sparse lights encourage us to peer deeper.’

The Irish Times - by Peter Crawley Reviewed 27 February 2012
http://www.irishtimes.com/newspaper/features/2012/0227/1224312370644.html

Do You Read Me? (Smock Alley Boys School, September 2011)

·      ‘Walking into the beautifully lit Boy’s School room at Smock Alley’

Irish Times – by Emma Somer
http://www.irishtimes.com/blogs/festival-hub/2011/09/12/do-you-read-me/

·     ‘Zia Holly's lighting design depicts a tug-of-war between darkness and light’

ITM - by Donald Mahoney Reviewed 10 September 2011
http://www.irishtheatremagazine.ie/Reviews/Absolut-Fringe-2011-review.aspx?review=43

Bedbound (The New Theatre, August 2011)

·      ‘McKenna, set designer Zia Holly and lighting designer Dan Bergin have created an impressively evocative space on the stage of the New Theatre’

ITM by Jesse Weaver Reviewed 13 August
http://www.irishtheatremagazine.ie/Reviews/Current/Bedbound

·      ‘Dan Bergin’s lighting merges beautifully with Zia Holly’s gravity-defying set, creating a visually arresting playing space that fills every inch of the stage. The design imbues the space with a life of its own, like some organic furniture beast.’

Meg -by Clara Kumagi.
http://www.meg.ie/bedbound-at-the-new-theatre-dublin/

·      ‘Zia Holly’s cleverly-designed set - a mishmash of tightly-stacked, precariously-balanced furniture - leaves us in no uncertain terms that this bedroom feels like it’s closing in on its wretched inhabitants.’

The Sunday Business Post -14 August 2011 Reviewed by Helen Boylan ****
http://www.sbpost.ie/archives/2011/0814/theatre-57952.html

·      ‘an impressive display of solid talent.’

Sunday Independent - EMER O'KELLY
http://www.independent.ie/incoming/beckettian-fantasy-with-a-twinkle-in-its-alien-eye-2848031.html

·      ‘New company Pillow Talk respond imaginatively to Walsh’s play, stimulated more by its surreal display than its nightmarish significance. Zia Holly’s set, for instance, trades the imprisoning crate of Walsh’s script for a more striking self-assembly: a frozen cyclone of furniture, climbing and curling around the characters.’

Irish Times –by Peter Crawley
http://www.irishtimes.com/newspaper/features/2011/0822/1224302803561.html

I'm A Home Bird (It's Very Hard) (The Project Arts Centre, Cube Theatre, April 2011)

· 'Zia Holly and Ciaran O’Melia’s warm and welcoming design'

Irish Theatre Magazine - 13th April 2011 - Reviewed by Jesse Weaver
http://www.irishtheatremagazine.ie/Reviews/Current/I-am-a-Home-Bird-%28It-s-Very-Hard%29