Robe gets intoxicated with Helene Fischer
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Cirque’s creative team led by Marie-Helen Delage approached Tim to work alongside show director Genevieve Dorion-Coupal and set designer Bruce Rodgers on this ambitious production.
The lighting rig utilises 56 x Robe iFortes, nine running on RoboSpot systems plus 116 x Robe Spiider LED wash beam moving lights, together with many other luminaires, all supplied by Solotech out of the UK.
Lighting director on the road for this fusion of circus, theatre and rock concert aesthetics is Dave Wolstenholme.
The show embraces a selection of Helene Fischer’s greatest hits plus songs from her eighth number-one studio album, Rausch (Intoxication), and one of many SFX is a large circular rain curtain that sets the scene for a dramatic straps act section.
This dictated that all downstage lighting fixtures on the diamond shaped stage had to be IP rated. 24 of the iFortes positioned on the floor are used for powerful and dramatic back light beams during this intense piece of performance art, which also includes CO2 jets and lasers.
The other 32 iFortes are rigged in the grid above on the side trusses and used for all the key lighting so their role is right at the essence of the performance. These side iFortes create comprehensive full-scale washes for the show’s epic production numbers when the stage is filled with up to 30 dancers and acrobats.
The further upstage iFortes are used for the bulk of the lighting work for performers in front of the band platforms and the three stage lifts which come up from the floor.
All nine of the show’s follow spots are iFortes, running on a nine-way RoboSpot system, and at any time Helene Fischer will have at least four on her.
14 of the Spiiders are rigged on the back of the video wall truss, used for band key lighting. Dave again notes the “good quality” of the light and compactness of the fixtures.
Most of the rest are on deployed on 14 vertical ladders, 6 Spiiders per ladder, which fills the whole video wall area downstage of the band.
For a couple of songs, disguise (video playback) programmer and operator Dan Bond sends Dave’s grandMA3 console a combination of RGB and dimmer / intensity info, which is mapped onto the Spiiders producing some cool, fluid kinetic looks.
“The Spiiders give us a lot of range,” elucidates Dave, “from individual pixel and pinpoint looks to massive big-rock-show scenes.” For some numbers they use just the inner two rings of LEDs for effects almost adding another type of luminaire to the rig!
The final 16 Spiiders are attached to the outside of the video wall rigged via special snap-on brackets, used to reinforce many of the big fly-out looks and define the side framing scenes, showing off the elegant curvature of the video wall.
WIcreations designed, engineered, and fabricated a complete special flown grid structure that sits above the stage and houses all the acrobatic and stunt equipment including performer winches plus some automated scenery, integrated access walkways and assorted technical areas required for everything to work smoothly.
Tim Routledge comments: “This show was a year in the making and followed a long process of workshopping and discussions to make all of the acrobatic requirements within the constraints of touring to multiple different sized venues with varying weight loading restrictions.
“Creatively it is a mix of the worlds of pop music and circus, and of establishing the right balance between the two. Making a show that is contemporary and had the ability to light the huge dynamic range of performance unfolding in a 270° stage filled with water effects, flying and fire was the real driver of the show’s direction. Audiences have danced and been thrilled by the spectacle in equal measure, and that harmony between music and acrobatics is what has really worked here.”
The light show was programmed by Tom Young, assisted during the extended rehearsal period by Alex Passmore onsite. A six-week production, technical and creative rehearsal period took place at AED studios in Belgium ahead of the first show and the lighting crew chief for this time and the first gig was Keith Johnson.
On the road, Dave is working with a lighting crew of seven chiefed by Craig Ralph, and the 32-truck tour is being production managed for Live Nation by David Salt.
