Celebrating 150 Years of Isambard Kingdom Brunel's Clifton suspension bridge, its spirit and impact as a landmark of Victorian engineering from conception to completion, the narrative also recalled how the bridge integrated into the community and industrial history of the region. The show was a collaboration between Bristol's Show of Strength Theatre Company and circus / physical theatre performance company, Circomedia.
The show's designer James Helps contacted Fineline on the recommendation of several others - to provide the solutions needed to stage the show - and its essential requirement to replicate the bridge in a theatrical setting - in this site specific location.
"We were all very pleased to be involved" comments Fineline's Rob Sangwell, "Apart from the obvious respect for Brunel and his many great civil engineering projects, it was great to be involved in a local production that was imaginative, different and required plenty of brainwork to create elegant solutions."
A major challenge was the fragile timber beam work in the roof of the building, which has never been used in such a context before, and had a weight loading of just 150 Kgs per point. The Passenger Shed was designed by Brunel as part of his 'Old Station' prior to the construction of Temple Meads Station itself. It contained two long platforms with rail tracks in the centre and was where passengers embarked the carriages that were pulled to the locomotives.
The show was played in traverse, a configuration perfectly suited to the narrative as well as the layout of the building, with two sets of bleacher seating stands installed either side of the long since removed railway tracks. The sides of the room also represented the gorge, and the centre space the River Avon which the bridge spans.
Rob Sangwell and Reuben Pinkney pooled their vast knowledge and considerable enthusiasm for the project to design a large ground support rigging system that provided both lighting, set and audio positions, and also a combined flown / ground supported truss grid for the aerial performance elements of the show.
The six legged 15 x 25m ground support was built from 52cm SuperTruss and tailored to the space to provide most of the equipment positions. The aerial performance grid - complete with Circomedia's pulleys, flaying harnesses, winches, rope trapezes, etc. - was dead hung from the roof timbers after being lifted into position using nine CM ProStar motors, all positioned to spread the load. The Supertruss aerial grid was additionally supported by two ground based towers taking most of the weight.
The ground support gave 7m of headroom, with the flying rig at 8m, out of a maximum headroom of 9 metres to the top of the apex roof.
The floor underneath what had originally been the rail tracks, was braced with a bespoke timber structure which allowed a self-elevating tightrope system to be installed by Circomedia, which was one of the props used for stunts and actors crossing the bridge.
Fineline supplied 12 x Robe Pointe multi-purpose fixtures which were the core of the lighting rig and positioned all around the ground support structure. They met the 'powerful and flexible' criteria, and were utilised for effects like recreating the chains of the bridge with their beams, plus washes and breakup effects.
He also specified 12 x Robe LEDWash 600s, four of which were rigged per side on the long edges of the ground support with four along the centre beam. These were used for general washes and for specials during some of the aerial sections.
The moving light count was completed with four Robe Robin 600E Spots
