The spectacle, produced by Stardust Circus International, which combines the drama and theatrical gruesomeness of Gothic horror with quick-witted illusion art, was launched at the Royal Theatre Carré in Amsterdam, the Netherlands, where it enjoyed a successful seven-week run before going on the road.
The action includes mind-boggling special effects that help transport audiences into a strange world where nothing is as it seems, as Hans Klok's House of Horror tests and exceeds the limits of the genre of 'illusion.' The epic-scale family horror show offers a cast of freakish and fantastical characters together with the Master of Magic!
Luc Peumans, commissioned as light and video designer, led the Painting with Light team which utilized one of its new d3 Technologies' media servers to great effect to help produce some gripping video special effects. They evoke the mystical world with many gruesome tricks and twists as Klok is pursued relentlessly by a pack of master illusionists from the past seeking to protect their realm of secrets.
The story unfolds in many different rooms and spaces around the House of magician Cordoni, who conceals the biggest secrets of all!
Cordoni has seduced other magicians into his house, made them disappear and kept all their illusionist acts in his 'magic book'. To become the greatest illusionist of all time Hans has to survive his visit to the house and combat Cordoni by executing 15 illusions in three minutes, a world record and the reason he's known as 'the world's fastest Illusionist'!
Art director and costume designer Jan Aarntzen produced the overall visual and set design and delivered a clear brief to the Painting with Light team about what they wanted to achieve in looks and atmosphere with video and lighting.
Two LED screens are integrated into the set. Upstage is a 12m wide by 7m high surface made up of Glux 10mm, selected for its light weight and carbon fibre frames, which are extremely quick and easy to assemble.
Four metres downstage of that are six pairs of 8m tall by 2m wide legs, stage left and right, set 15 cm apart upstage and downstage for the show but also manually movable on a tab-track system to mask scene changes taking place behind.
The video visuals are instrumental in supporting the show's narrative so Painting with Light brought in video artist Jos Claesen to co-ordinate the content creation team. He and Luc worked together on this year's K3 tour (Belgium's most famous girl band) and over two hours of original content was produced from scratch.
A newly purchased d3 Technologies 4x2pro media server, supplied via Benelux distributor FACE, was specified as the most flexible and stable solution for storing and playing back House of Horror's media elements.
The whole process started at Painting with Light's studio facilities in Genk, Belgium. Then it moved to the production rehearsal facility, a former factory space in Klok's home town of Ijmuiden, for the last week.
Subsequently, they moved the d3 and full video visualisation package plus WYSIWYG, for a final week of intense programming and editing on site at the Royal Theatre Carré before the premiere.
Twenty-eight Robe DL7S LED profiles are the backbone of the lighting rig chosen as good and strong all-round theatrical fixtures with some great gobos and excellent colours and quality of light.
They are augmented with 24 Robe Pointes deployed on side ladders and used for the many punchy effects, their small size and multi-functionality being key.
Twelve CycFX 8s are used to light a voile in front of the upstage video screen and also used strategically as a light curtain.
Twenty-five Clay Paky Sharpy Washes are scattered around for side and back light, their small dimensions and tight beams used for highlighting and to showcase some of the more architectural looks.
Atomics are the strobe of choice for high impact and scary moments and 24 Tour Pro Fireball 1212 LED PAR - RGBAW + UV black, which works extremely well - are dotted around the stage and auditorium to enhance the black light tricks.
The package is completed with a pair of Robert Juliat Aramis follow spots. Lighting is supplied by Flashlight from Utrecht.
The programmer was Arjan Grootenhuis for Painting with Light. The LED screen and video hardware is supplied by Faber Audio Visuals, part of the Dutch NEP Group.
The tour is currently scheduled to run until January 2017. It will also return to the Carré in October 2017.
(Jim Evans)
