A note before we begin: what follows are our costume concepts — mood, colour and fabric suggestions developed during pre-production. The final designs will be the work of a costume designer, who will bring their own eye, expertise and interpretation to each character's wardrobe. Consider this a starting point, not a blueprint. If Maria's wardrobe is a slow fade to black, Nino's is the opposite. Where her clothes darken and empty out, his brighten and fill in: cotton to velvet

Even in the darkest times, the Italian spirit always finds a way to lift itself up. The first act of The Sparrow takes place in the Sicilian countryside in the winter of 1854–55, as a cholera epidemic loosens its grip on Catania. Our families have buried neighbours, boarded up their city houses, and waited out the sickness among the mulberry trees on the slopes of Etna. When the first good news arrives, they do what Sicilians have always done with fear: they dance it out. The

In the lowest part of the convent, below the refectory, below the chapel, there is a cell. Everyone knows who lives there but nobody dares to call her name out loud. In Verga’s novel there is even a legend attached to it: the madwomen’s cell must never remain empty, as if the building itself required a tribute. Sister Agata is the character everyone ask us about most, and she occupies a strange and precious place in the show. She is the cautionary tale the convent tells its n