"The new design is conceived not as the 'grunge' look of the original, but as a clean white box - simple stylish lines with a white reflective floor, a raised dias in the middle for the apartment and, above, a clean shiny metallic bridge," explains David Howe. "This all meant that the available lighting positions were quite restricted, having only 1m of space between the safety curtain and the white walls, and quite high trim heights, over 9m, on hemp bars overhead, making access for focus and maintenance difficult. Front of house light needed to be kind to the faces and yet not produce nasty reflections from the white floor."
Howe therefore made "a very conscious decision to invest in a reasonable package of moving fixtures as moving specials." He decided to base the design around tungsten moving lights, "to keep a simplicity to the often-returned-to apartment look," but then needed "a bright gobo coverage, and colour 'blasters' for more fantastical moments - the white box was both a blank canvas to be painted on and a surface to bounce off; any light hitting it would make an impact."
With the budget tight, Howe turned to White Light, having worked closely with them on many projects, including the current epic production of The Lord Of The Rings. His base conventional rig was formed from ETC Source Fours. To that he added Vari-Lite VL3000 Washes, VL3000 Spots for gobo texture, City Theatrical AutoYokes and Strand Pirouettes for the basic tungsten look, and Clay Paky Alpha Halo Washlights as a colour-changing tungsten source. One Vari-Lite VL1000 Arc was used for logo and other gobo projection and shutter-shaping work. The rig was installed by a team led by production electrician Gerry Amies with Chris Dunford and John Tapster; Dan Large was the assistant designer, with the show programmed by Jonathan Rouse on a Strand 520i console.
"The show evolved considerably during the production period, and then from the first preview right up until a particularly star-studded opening evening," Howe notes. "White Light were so supportive and were able to keep us on track as changes to the show meant the requirements of our rig changed."
(Jim Evans)
