Directed by one of Asia's leading theatre directors, Ong Keng Sen, Richard Sandaime is an international collaboration performed in Japanese, English and Indonesian with Japanese and English subtitles. It uses top actors from Singapore, Indonesia and Japan, and a Balinese puppeteer. Loosely based on Shakespeare's Richard III, this innovative and rarely performed production - the first since Japanese playwright and director Noda Hideki's original 1990 production - is the story of a fictional trial of Shakespeare, who allegedly defamed Richard Sandaime, the Grand Master of Ikebana.
The main scenic element for Richard Sandaime is the cyclorama itself, which Zielinski had intended to light with standard 1250W 4-colour cyclorama lights, mixing them in traditional style. "However, it came as quite a shock to me that Japan typically uses only 300W or 500W cyc lights which were not powerful enough for such an important feature," he says. "It quickly became obvious I needed to look at other options."
The highly visual production called for a fixture with an extremely, wide colour spectrum, which could produce intense colour. Zielinski was very keen to get the best product to deliver the effect he needed for the cyclorama and was introduced to the Robert Juliat Dalis 860 by Sogo Butai Co Ltd, an associate company of Robert Juliat's Japanese distributor, Theater Engineering Co Ltd.
Dalis 860 has a double row of 24 LEDs (48 in total) and an eight colour mixing system, from which multiple, intense and vivid colours, or delicate, pale washes can be produced. Dalis is also convection cooled so there are no noisy fans to contend with, which makes it ideal for use in theatre and television.
When Zielinski tried the Dalis fixtures he commented, "I was blown away - I used 12 units to cover the 9m high x 12m wide cyclorama from a floor-mounted position only 2m behind the cloth. They produced an absolutely smooth, beautiful, even wash of incredible intensity."
Zielinski summed up his experience with Dalis, "For me the most fantastic thing was the ability to have those pure, vibrant sheets of colour - this is the only equipment that allows me to do this. I am already planning on using them in some future projects."
Following its Japanese premiere, Richard Sandaime moved to the Victoria Theatre & Concert Hall, Singapore in September where it played for two weeks as part of the annual Singapore International Festival of Arts. The production then moved to Tokyo, from where it embarks on a small tour of four more Japanese cities in November.
A co-production between Tokyo Metropolitan Theatre and Singapore International Festival of Arts, Hideki Noda's Richard Sandaime was directed by Ong Keng Sen. The lighting was designed by Scott Zielinski, with set design by Kato Chika, costume by Yanaihara Mitsushi, video design by Takahashi Keisuke and music by Yamanaka Toru.
(Jim Evans)
