Set designer Bill Dudley was struck by the shortness of the play’s scenes and the frequency of location changes. His design had to allow for quick, simple scene changes, which provided the opportunity to use 3D-computer modelling: it was but a short step then to the use of computer-animated projections to provide instant scene changes.
With 75 scenes, kinetics were key to the set and lighting design. The production sees a partnership between Dudley, lighting designer David Hersey, DHA’s projection specialists Wyatt Enever and Steve Larkins, the RNT’s new video department and Dick Straker, its video consultant. The perimeter of the stage is ringed by seven curved panels (6m x 9m). It is onto these that Dudley’s animations are projected, using six Barco video projectors which divide the panels into thirds, with each third having two projectors double-stacked for maximum brightness.
The projected scenery includes a combination of electronically-animated photos and technical drawings, or images modelled in the 3D software and computer-animated, frame by frame. Enever and Larkins supplied a wide range of slides to be used with Dudley’s video projections. Projecting onto the stage is a Pani BP4, flown from over 13m above the stage. The slides supplied by DHA for the overhead Pani included a ring effect, used to rim-light the edge of the stage.
Helping to create a balance between the set and lighting was lighting designer David Hersey. To achieve this he made use of the RNT’s house stock, including four followspots, 10 DHA Digital Light Curtains, the Pani large format slide projectors and two HMI colour washes, plus 19 Vari*Lite VL6s and 30 VL5s, from VLPS. Very few conventional lighting fixtures were used. The use of moving lights in Utopia is not standard practice in a play: "It was certainly a first for me," said Hersey, "but the kinetics of the moving lights reflects that of the constant video footage."
Hersey found himself intrigued by the mixture of the lighting and video projection and, in particular, the textural aspects of the way the light works with the video footage: this led him to explore the idea of creating an image from several components. For example, at one point in the play a photographic image of a Parisian window is projected onto the upstage projection screen. To complete the trompe l’oeil, he uses a gobo in the over stage projector to create the effect of light shining through the window. For Hersey, the greatest challenge was in uniting the video projection and the lighting. He told us: "I think that without a doubt the fusion of video projections and lighting is here to stay."
