It's the seventh year that Summit has installed the rigging infrastructure for a Cirque production in the venue, and this one has been particularly challenging because of the sheer scale, complexity and the amount of spreader trusses needed to ensure that the show rigging could be hung in exactly the right places.
Summit project manager Chris Walker led a team of 12 riggers who started work on Boxing Day following work completed by an overnight crew of five riggers in the run up to Christmas, who took care of the pre-rigging and proof testing of the anchor points.
The main crew worked in two split shifts in order to get everything finished and ready for the first rehearsal on 31 December, after which Summit left one standby rigger to baby-sit through to opening night on the 8 January.
Chris Walker started work on the project a year ago; he liaised closely with the RAH, Cirque's base in Montreal, other UK suppliers and the tour itself. Key personnel included UK-based transfer project manager Andy Peat; Montreal-based rigging project manager Stéphane Mayrand and the Varekai's technical director Rob Naumann. At The Royal Albert Hall, key people were the RAH's consulting structural engineer, Bob Stagg. Caroline Place and Luke Manning from the technical show department and show manager Jacqui Kelly.
(Jim Evans)
