Speakers at the event included Mark Jonathan, well-known lighting designer and manager, who represented members of The Association of Lighting Designers (ALD) - an organization Northen founded with Joe Davis and later became chairman and then president of in 1995. Also speaking was Robert Camac - Michael Northen's long-term partner whom he was with from1948 until his death in 2001, and Giles Waterfield - Northen's nephew. All recounted some wonderfully warm and funny stories of days working and living with Michael Northen.
Surprisingly, this is the first exhibition at the Theatre museum dedicated solely to the work of an individual lighting designer, and I would hope it will go some way to raising the profile of lighting designers and the invaluable artistic contribution they make to many a staged production.
Northen's career began when he used his £300 gratuity from the RAF to build a model theatre, which eventually took on the scaled proportions of the Royal Opera House! Many came to see the theatre; one designer in particular, Leslie Hurry, had been asked by John Gielgud to design the set for a production of King Lear at Stratford in 1950. Northen built Hurry's model set, put it on the stage and then, just for fun, lit it! The next morning when Gielgud, Hurry and Anthony Quayle arrived, the model stage was lit up beautifully, and the team decided there and then that Northen was to be the lighting designer for the show. It was on this production that he was to get the first ever lighting designer's credit in the programme.
After the war, Northen worked on many productions at Stratford and the ROH. However, feeling he needed more freedom, he went freelance and became more involved in West End theatre productions. As Camac told me: "In the West End, the first show Michael lit was Alec Guinness's production of Hamlet. It was the first time they had used an electronic board and on the first night the first cue played back wrong! The result was that in the dark moody scene on the battlements every light came up. Michael was horrified. As the sentry called out: 'Ho, who's there?' - well, you can imagine - everyone could see who was there! It got worse and Michael spent the rest of the show relighting it as they went. The following day the credit in The Times said 'Michael Northen's lighting was brilliant, if erratic!'"
Northen later re-lit The Mousetrap - the only production he was involved with that is still playing today, thus providing an almost permanent memorial to him! During this period he also lit many big musicals and especially adored doing pantomime.
Northen, a gentle, well-loved man, was hugely supportive of the up-and-coming generation of lighting designers, particularly in his retirement, and for this and his services to lighting design and the theatre he was honoured with an MBE. Camac said: "Michael was a modest man. If he had known there was going to be an exhibition in his honour, he would have said we were all out of our tiny minds!"
The exhibition itself does not present a huge amount of material - and in that respect it reflects the modesty of the man. However, what there is provides a fascinating insight back into the golden age of theatre and a clue to how and where many of today's technical traditions in the theatre developed. The Northen Lights Exhibition at the Theatre Museum Covent Garden runs from now until November 2004.
