Press
" One of Canada's most exciting set designers "
- Richard Bradshaw, March 2005
Becoming Dr. Ruth
"Distinguished set designer Yannik Larivée has surrounded Dr. Ruth with various sizes of packing boxes, which become chairs, desks and anything climbable as needed, and which represent the accumulated clutter of her busy life and career. (…)
The production is efficient and non-obtrusive, and it works, leaving Dr. Ruth front and centre."
Paula Citron, Globe & Mail, May 2019
Kopernikus
"The seven singers, seven instrumentalists (oboe, three clarinets, trumpet, trombone and violin) and two dancers had already gathered and were drifting about a scaffold separating the audience from the seats, a well-designed conceit courtesy of Yannik Larivée that transformed the Greenham into a cosmos-under-continued-construction — the Greenham never looked better. "
Stephan Bonfield, Calgary Herald
July 12 , 2017
Hosanna
"But what is at the centre of Tremblay's creation? Is it Claude or Hosanna? Is it a man or a woman? Is it an actor or a character?
Yannik Larivée's one-room apartment set eventually transforms into a wall of mirrors aimed at the audience as much as the actors – and the question becomes unanswerable and unsettling."
J.Kelly Nestruck, Globe & Mail ,Sept 29, 2016
"The theme of exposure is underlined in this production’s major scenic innovation (designed by Yannik Larivée), a back wall of mirrors that Cuirette forces Hosanna to look into, triggering the truth-telling. This is a rare point of self-conscious theatricality."
Karen Fricker, Toronto Star, Oct 3 2016
Breath of Kings
"Yannik Larivée’s costumes, lavish and beautifully observed throughout, here hint at contemporary shapes and styles; Hal’s asymmetrical necklines, Falstaff’s voluminous red leather vest and Mistress Quickly (Kate Hennig)’s pink spool-heel pumps add to the impression of these characters as artfully out of step with mainstream society (and loving it)."
Karen Fricker, Toronto Star, June 23 2016
Boom
"The accompanying visuals are stunning. The centre of Yannik Larivée’s set is a huge cylinder—like a time capsule—that’s made out of scrim material, so, depending how it’s lit, it can disappear or it can become a projection surface for David Leclerc’s gorgeous visuals. When Miller is inside the cylinder and an image is projected onto it, he becomes a little boy standing stoutly in the archway of a grand apartment building in Nazi-occupied Vienna. When he’s Glenn Gould at the piano, stop-motion photographs of the eccentric musician click rhythmically into view. "
Colin Thomas , The Georgia Straight
January 21, 2016
James and the Giant Peach
"Pasek and Paul’s music, written in a generic post-Sondheim, post-Kander style is pleasant during the moment but immediately fades from memory once it is over. What will stay in the theategoer’s memory much longer is Yannik Larivée’s impressive design. The entire stage is framed by two parentheses that we realize are the shape of two side of a peach. Midstage is a wall with a large peach-shaped cutout with a curtain behind it concealing a screen. There Miner stages some of the more complex action scenes using shadow puppets, such as the rhino attack on James’s parents or the giant peach rolling down the hill over James’s aunts."
Christopher Hoile, Stage-Door
November 28, 2014
Twelve Angry Men
"The theatre has been smartly arranged so that the audience sits on either side of the narrow stage, on which a long table, chairs, a ceiling fan, a clock, a sink, and a coat rack make up the suitably anodyne jurors' room. This is, in essence, a good design that allows us to not only witness the cast in close quarters, but allows the audience to observe one another. We are in conversation and debate about the issues being presented; we are the judge, the jurors, even the convicted."
Kathrine Kustanczy
Broadway World, Toronto, June 18, 2014
Salome
"The first thing to say about Edmonton Opera's production of Salome, which opened at the Jubilee on Saturday, is that it is so compelling, so thought-provoking, and of such quality that it could happily be transferred to any of the world's greatest opera houses. It is the first opera production I have seen in Alberta about which that could be said with such conviction."
Mark Morris, Edmonton Journal
Monday, October 28 2013
One of Three
"Three women appeared succession against sea of darkly suited, swivelling men: first a dreaming a white evening gown, then ballerina slightly more vibrant in black and white, and finally, a sassier femme, girlishly tuxedoed. Yannik Larivee bold costumes dominated the work."
Mary Love Hodges, Brooklyn Rail
Novembre 2009
Watch Her
"Thirty-nine dancers in gorgeous costumes by Yannik Larivée, performing in Larivée’s arresting box set with oddly placed windows and narrow doors, enact an almost gothic tale of love, loss and obsession."
Paula Citron , The Globe & Mail
November 26, 2009
Castle Nowhere
"Set to music by Arvo Part, Castle Nowhere is arresting, as the curtains open on a scene which a small bomb appears to have exploded a drawing room- leaving fragments of mirrors, lamps, and clocks suspended in the air."
Judith Mackrell, The Guardian
March 27, 2006
"The curtain goes up on an attention- grabbing set by Yannik Larivee. Household objects hang overhead, insisting on period detail and sweeping it away."
Zoe Anderson, The Independant
March 30, 2006
Wild Mouth
"Yannik Larivee’s set, constructed from large beams of wood to evoke a barn, is as wide open as the Prairies. It gently slopes upstage toward projected images of Prairie topography creating a panoramic feel."
Debbie Fein-Goldbach, Now Magazine
Toronto, January 17, 2008
“… her Wild Mouth is full of often unruly humanity and, marked by a deep and genuine affection and empathy not only for her characters, but for the land they both love and fear as well.
It is that affection that director R.H. Thomson taps into with powerful effect,(…) with designer Yannik Larivee with a compassion and humanity, as well as a deep sense of timelessness that is breathtaking.”
John Coulborn , The Sun, January 10, 2008
Barbe-Bleue
Die Fledermaus
“Des images spectaculaires : cette Chauve-Souris décline un grand style plein de gaieté et une élégance frivole.”
Kurt Witterstatter - Kehler Zeitung
“Un triomphe mérité qu’a remporté cette formidable production”
Emmanuel Andrieu – Classique Info
“Un tourbillon étourdissant”
Noël Tinazzi – Rue du Théâtre
Die Entfuhrung aus dem Serail
"La scénographie de l’équipe réunie autour du jeune metteur en scène Waut Koeken est plutôt bien pensée. Le dispositif unique, alignement de boiseries XVIIIe siècle évidées, à la fois labyrinthe et barreaux de prison dorée, évoque de façon très juste l’ambiance confinée d’un sérail , en prenant à juste titre ses distances avec un certain nombre de clichés orientalistes. On y retrouve bien l’impression ressentie lors de la visite du harem ottoman de Topkapi : un confinement luxueux où la lumière du jour, parcimonieusement accordée, ne semble provenir de nulle part."
Laurent Barthel, ConcertoNet, Mai 2011
“On trouve dans ce spectacle magie scénique et force symbolique, ce qui montre que le théâtre est toujours capable d’associer exigence intellectuelle et aura.”
Alexander Dick – Badische Zeitung
"Le metteur en scène Waut Koeken et le décorateur et costumier Yannik Larivée ont placé cette farce entre rêve et réalité, dans un univers surréaliste gouverné par les distorsions d’échelle et de perspective. L’attrayant espace de jeu figure un immense lit au premier acte, doublé d’une tout aussi géante table de nuit, devient table de cuisine avec sa nappe en Vichy au second pour terminer en table de banquet des noces au dernier acte. Waut Koeken l’occupe avec efficacité et un sens de la mesure certain, débridé mais sans désordre excessif quand il le faut, ménageant aussi des plages poétiques, comme cet hommage au Dictateur de Chaplin qui voit le roi Bobèche jouer avec une énorme mappemonde. Les caractères sont dessinés avec soin par une direction suffisamment précise pour assurer clarté et fluidité des péripéties mais sachant également laisser libre cours aux improvisations et talents d’acteur des intervenants."
Michel Thomé, ResMusica , 22 férvrier 2014
"La scénographie et les costumes de Yannik Larivée sont parfaitement réussis, qui transposent l’intrigue pastorale dans un univers plus explicitement marital, ce qui est logique pour un opéra-bouffe on l’on ne parle que d’épousailles à répétition : gigantesque lit conjugal au premier acte, immense canapé familial puis table de cuisine au deuxième, table nuptiale au dernier, avant un ultime retour au lit initial. Tout le monde est en chemise de nuit, pyjama ou nuisette, avec chapeau, plastron et habit par-dessus lorsqu’on se transporte à la cour du roi."
Laurent Bury, Forum Opera, février 2014