Back by popular demand, Perrier Award-winning comedian, writer and original star of Grumpy Old Women, Jenny Eclair is joined by fellow recruits Susie Blake and Kate Robbins in a new theatrical production based on the hit BBC British TV show.
Matt has been providing the raucous live show's lighting since 2007.
"The lighting had to recreate a number of contrasting scenic environments - from the initial sunny garden, to a torture chamber, a Saturday night TV Strictly Come Dancing-like show studio, a wine bar, and a tea shop, amongst others," explains Matt. "With only one full set, all these environments had to be created with lighting and the cyc, which was constructed from the set's washing line and sheets. Colours were purposefully comic-book in their conception - pinks, reds, blues and greens dominated the design."
Matt specified three Chroma-Q Color Force 48 1.2m / 4ft battens rigged directly in front of the cyc, uplighting from approximately 30cm beneath it. The powerful fixtures easily wash up to 8m / 26ft - making them ideal as stage show lighting.
"I needed something that would give a powerful 'punch' of colour up a flown back-cloth to create some vivid colour washes," says Matt. "The Color Force 48s were fantastic - super bright, offering amazing colours, and a uniform wash which really helped me create a sense of scale and architecture to the lighting that in turn would support the comic-book styling of the scenic design."
The set consisted of a garden and shed, which opened on all sides at the top of the show "as if it was a spacecraft that had just landed". For this scene, the production team employed smoke, stage haze, lightning, and strobe effects which the Color Force units were essential in helping to create.
Elsewhere in the rig, Matt specified MAC Auras and Vipers, plus conventional S4s and Pars. "The theatrical grade dimming meant that the Color Force fixtures seamlessly blended in with the rest of the rig in every fade, each night" says Matt.
"The Color Force fixtures are a joy to tour with - robust and super simple to rig, power and patch," says Matt. "I'm looking forward to showing them off across the UK on the next tour."
The Color Force 48s were recommended by A.C. Entertainment Technologies (AC-ET) Ltd's Neil Vann.
"I knew my first call would be to Neil Vann and the team at A.C. - there's no-one more knowledgeable about contemporary lighting solutions than those guys," says Matt. "Neil and I had been discussing how to create the most impressive colourful cycs for Grumpy Old Women and Neil was right on the money with the Color Force suggestion."
(Jim Evans)
