Actor, comedian and singer Shane Richie - best known for his role as Alfie Moon in the long running BBC 1 soap EastEnders - was back in the lead role at The Swan due to popular demand after his success as Buttons in last year's Cinderella.
Andy, a freelance LD based in Cirencester, has worked with Robe products over the last 10 years and was impressed - in particular - with the authenticity of the various Robe LED lightsources that he used during the Showlight symposium in Cesky Krumlov in 2013, for which he was invited to create a lighting showcase in one of the city's theatres.
When the opportunity to light a major commercial panto arose, he decided to revisit the concept and specify Robe moving lights, the majority of which were LED sources.
His brief from director Jon Conway was to make the lighting bright and dramatic with some specials centred around a number of key comedy routines, plus all those magical and surreal elements that are de rigeuer with panto, like evil queens, underwater scenes and desert islands, etc.
For his main key lighting - rigged at the front side positions and also to a bar in front of the circle balcony, he chose five of Robe's Robin DLS Profiles, which formed the workhorses of the rig. Three of these were positioned on the FOH bar at the front of the circle balcony, with one each a side on the pros booms.
Also rigged on the two side boom were two Robe Robin DLF Washes which augmented the DLS wash looks, giving a nice wide additional strong colour from a good angle.
Six PARFect 100s on the pros booms were fitted with standard 7 degree lenses and used to highlight the false pros arch.
Onstage, LX bar 1 hosted the three remaining DLS s rigged in the centre, and these were flanked by 12 x LEDBeam 100s arranged in four clusters of three on custom drop-down bars, so they could tuck in under the pros for the finale.
LX bars 2 and 3 were loaded with seven Robin DLX Spots, with four Robin Pointes rigged on LX3.
Rigged on four onstage side stage booms each side were a total of 28 PARFects with 40 degree lenses.
Along the front of the stage - replacing conventional 'birdie' footlights - was a row of 8 x Robin CycFX 8s.
The showfile contained nearly 250 lighting cues and was programmed by Miles Fisher on an ETC EOS Ti during the production week, then transferred onto an ETC Ion for the show run of 41 performances over three weeks. The fit-up production manager was James Henshaw and the production LX was Martin Roberts.
The Robe products were supplied by rental company HSL and Robe UK, and Andy also used the house generics, strobes, followspots and assorted atmosphere generators.
(Jim Evans)
