* John Bury; Bold Designer Shaped British Theater

John Bury, 75, set designer who transformed the look of British theater with his bold, stylized sets. Bury’s career spanned the 1950s to the 1990s. Bury’s hallmark as a designer was his use of authentic materials, such as wood, brick and glass, and architectural structures. At the same time, he preferred to use a minimum of scenery to give actors more room. In a 1957 set for a new play by Henry Chapman, “You Won’t Always Be on Top,” he required a brick wall to be built across the stage every night, a feat that turned the actors into expert bricklayers. Some of his best work was done for the Royal Shakespeare Company, the National Theater, the Royal Opera House and the Glyndebourne opera festival. Among his triumphs was the triple-sided black cavern he created in 1963 at the Royal Shakespeare Company for the Peter Hall-directed productions of “Henry VI” and “Richard III,” which were presented under the title “The Wars of the Roses.” When Hall moved to the National Theater in 1973, he brought along Bury to become head of design there for 12 years. In 1979 he created an eye-catching 18th century set for Peter Shaffer’s “Amadeus” that won the designer two Tony awards. On Nov. 12 of pneumonia and heart disease in Gloucestershire, England.