“The best thing you can do is consistently produce good work that you really believe in.”

“Very, very busy—with a lot of really great work. And The Constant Wife is one of them, in terms of working with Tamara Harvey and Laura Wade again. We did Home, I’m Darling a few years ago, and it was one of my best experiences ever; a kind of family, very talented, very intelligent women.”

For Fleischle, collaboration has always been at the heart of theatre-making. Her designs, meticulous yet emotionally resonant, are as much about the people she works with as the worlds she builds.

Yet her journey into the industry was far from easy. “It is a really hard profession to break into,” she admits. “But there is also a massive dose of luck. On one hand, it’s difficult when you’re not there yet; on the other, it becomes easier once you are. Everything I have is totally self-built, but there’s something about the work you put in to make those connections.”

Fleischle’s own path was forged through persistence and a belief in artistic integrity. Her advice to aspiring designers is direct and generous. “Persistently be there and work hard,” she says. “You have to be prepared to do it, because you will have to. And second, don’t look too much left and right. You can always compare yourself to people who got opportunities quicker, but that will never teach you anything valuable. The best thing you can do is consistently produce good work that you really believe in.”

That combination of resilience and clarity has defined Fleischle’s career. Over the past decade, she has become one of the UK’s most sought-after theatre designers, her portfolio spanning West End productions, opera, and ballet. She embraces technology as a tool to expand creative possibilities rather than constrain them. “The fact that I can do 3D drawing and pre-visualisation, watch a scene change before anything has been built, and print for model-making or props—it’s made my life a lot easier,” she explains. “Model making is incredibly time-consuming. 3D printing can be much quicker, and you can be more detailed, so you can test things better.”

In The Constant Wife, Fleischle found an opportunity to explore a uniquely female perspective—one she felt was both quietly radical and profoundly human. “I do think there’s something quite brilliant and female about being quietly observant,” she reflects. “You assess a situation, think, ‘Okay, what do I want?’ and then build a whole idea of where you want to go—and execute it without needing to announce it.” Her design mirrors this inner process, allowing audiences to see Constance’s world evolve “from the origin of an idea to the perfection of its realisation.”

That sensitivity to psychology and structure has made Fleischle’s work so distinctive. Her designs don’t simply frame a story; they articulate it. Each detail, from a curve of furniture to a palette of light, reveals how characters inhabit their space and how they might, in turn, be shaped by it.

Beyond aesthetics, Fleischle is passionate about the social role of theatre. In light of a recent high-profile comment describing theatre as elitist, she offers her own perspective, not as a rebuttal, but as a principle she holds deeply. “The amazing thing, or the power of theatre, is that it challenges your thinking,” she says. “Nobody walks out the same way they walked in. That’s how we evolve as a society. Everybody should be able to see shows. Theatre needs to be for everyone.” She adds that coming from a country without a class system shapes her view: accessibility isn’t about labels, but about ensuring the art form genuinely welcomes all.

She also points out the often-overlooked position of designers within the creative hierarchy. “The first person to work on a play is a designer,” she notes. “Up until rehearsals, you’re leading the conversations, presenting ideas. But during rehearsals, you slowly get written out of the narrative because now you’re in workshops and fittings.” That, she says, contributes to a widespread misunderstanding. “Designers are therefore often assumed from the outside to be purely executing a director’s ideas, rather than being the originators of the visual identity of a show.”

For The Constant Wife, Fleischle and co-designer Cat Fuller were meticulous about balancing period authenticity with modern resonance. “We picked shapes that could exist historically but still feel relatable,” she says, ensuring audiences connect to the characters as “like me, she’s like my mate, she’s like my mum.” That balance between timelessness and immediacy, she argues, is essential: “When you recognise yourself on stage, you react more strongly because it concerns you—and that can have a lasting effect.”

Her current projects reflect a designer at the top of her game, unafraid to traverse disciplines. She’s working on a new full-scale ballet with Birmingham Royal Ballet and Carlos Acosta, The Maiden of Venice; a production at the National Theatre with Clint Dyer; and, for the first time, designing Lily Allen’s new ‘West End Girl’ tour, where she’s also involved in creative direction—“shaping the team, the concept, the flow of the evening.”

Amid the success, Fleischle continues to campaign for better recognition of designers’ contributions. “Our work is visual. It should not be shown without the designer’s name on it,” she says firmly. “Yet theatres and press historically don’t include it, even though copyright law says they should. You wouldn’t print a play without the writer’s name or play music without naming the composer.”

A recent breakthrough with the Royal Shakespeare Company has been particularly meaningful. “They agreed that from now on, designers will always be credited with the image, and they’ll ask papers to do it. That’s a huge step forward.” She pauses. “It still isn’t easy… you must ask for it, and then people treat you as if you’re being big-headed or difficult. But it really matters: it is our original work, and leaving it unnamed is not only disrespectful—it leaves the protection of our work vulnerable to unauthorised use and copying.”

As our conversation draws to a close, Fleischle returns to The Constant Wife, the project that so vividly encapsulates her ethos. “It’s a brilliant night at the theatre,” she says. “It’s funny, visually rich, and deeply enjoyable, with Laura’s writing sparking laughter and reflection in equal measure. Beneath the humour, it asks urgent questions about how we live together, reminding us that our differences aren’t burdens but enrichments that make us more human.”