PRG Europe provided the lighting for the Madrid production of Cats, and as the show closed in January, the most practical solution for lighting the Moscow production was to use the same rig - albeit re-configured to suit the new venue. Under the direction of lighting designer Howard Eaton, the revamped rig includes 81 moving heads, a range of conventionals, six strobes, two hazers, two followspots, 72-way and 48-way Avolites dimmers and two Wholehog II control desks - one as a spare.
Alan Thomson, managing director of PRG Europe's Croydon operation, has been involved with many different productions of Cats, including its London debut over two decades ago, but the Russian version presented challenges that even he hadn't faced before. "Working in temperatures down to minus 16°C you have to be equipped for all weather, but the biggest challenges came because Russia isn't an EU country. We couldn't just ship the lighting direct from Madrid, we had to ship it back to Croydon and then out again, using the old - but tried and tested - Carnet system," said Thomson.
In only 10 days, the entire rig was shipped from Madrid to Croydon, then re-prepped and re-packaged for shipment to Moscow. James Hall and Craig Bennitt of the Croydon PRG Europe office needed to pay close attention to detail, knowing that once it arrived in Russia, the authorities would scrutinise the shipment, paperwork and package weights to ensure that they matched for tax purposes. This was just the beginning, however, because the show's run is currently open-ended and Thomson's team had to address the issue of spares and repairs. "The authorities look to see if you're selling what you're bringing in and trying to avoid paying the import duty. They check everything, so it's very difficult to supply things quickly," said Thomson. "You can't just courier a replacement piece of equipment in and swap the faulty one out, like you can in an EU country."
Compounding the problem is the lack of experience of the latest lighting technology in Russian commercial theatre. "The technology is there in the clubs, but it's not widespread in theatres," Thomson explained, "so Russian theatre technicians don't yet have the skills to service all the equipment that we've delivered."
To get round this problem, PRG also supplied a large quantity of spare parts, with the creative team of Thomson, Howard Eaton, associate lighting designer Frazer Hall, production electrician Jonathan Badger and moving light programmer Stuart Cross teaching local technicians the required servicing techniques. In addition, a PRG technician will visit Moscow every 6-8 weeks to run training and maintenance sessions.
This also clearly has a longer-term benefit for the venues themselves, which Thomson is happy to provide: "Russian audiences aren't used to production values of this complexity, so shows like Cats and We Will Rock You will inevitably set a trend for higher production values. By providing equipment and training, we're also able to help raise standards and make the theatre experience more compelling for all."
Under the direction of managing director Dmitri Bogachev, production company Stage Holding Russia has created the MDM Theatre within the city's Palace of Youth, a vast concrete pentagonal building built during the Soviet era for speeches and choir performances. It still features a ring of interpreter booths for the many different languages from the countries that made up the former USSR. However, these have been masked off and audiences just see the expected junkyard of the Cats set.
