The Muse set has been constructed by Brilliant Stages from Es Devlin's design, under the auspices of production manager, Chris Vaughan.
The set consists of an 18m wide circular stage, flanked by 3m high tech bunkers complete with access stairs and topped by three 'stair towers', each weighing four tons, which carry video screens on all four surfaces.
Brilliant Stages built the stage to conceal three hydraulic performer scissor lifts, a piano lift to the rear, a set of access steps embedded in the stage behind the central drum riser and three star traps from which appear props and performers throughout the show. The central performer lift also supports a riser into which is set a revolve which carries the drum kit.
Brilliant Stages also made a series of additional props including a pyramid stand for the guitarist's boutique aluminium-cased amp, and matching-styled fascias for the keyboard stand and in-fill cabinets.
Once built, Brilliant Stages shipped the towers and performer lifts to XL Video where the sides were clad in lightweight F-LED 30mm screens. These are used to stream video content throughout the show but become transparent when internally lit to reveal the interior structure of the stair towers.
"We have worked with Es's designs a number of times now and have devised a system which makes deployment of such large constructions easy and fast for touring," explains Brilliant Stages' John Gittins. "We designed each of the stair towers in four sections of four panels, with a final 1m section at the bottom for lighting fixtures, and incorporated fixings for the F-LED screens throughout. The upper balcony is constructed first and raised so the first section of stair tower can be attached beneath it. The structure is then lifted to a height where the next section can be attached beneath it, and the process repeated until the whole tower is complete."
The Brilliant Stages constructed set will travel with Muse through Europe, the US, Japan, New Zealand and Australia before returning to the UK in September 2010.
(Jim Evans)
