White Light Gets Into the Spirit with A Christmas Carol
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Written by Jack Thorne, the Old Vic’s A Christmas Carol is a brand-new adaptation of Charles Dickens’ timeless classic. It tells the iconic story of miserly Ebenezer Scrooge who is visited by four ghosts on Christmas Eve. Over the night, Scrooge is forced to confront his past and is given a final chance to see the error of his ways. The show opened last night to rave reviews and White Light provided the lighting equipment.
A Christmas Carol stars Rhys Ifans and features a lighting design by Hugh Vanstone. Hugh comments: “This is a thoughtful and innovative take on the Dickens classic rather than an expensive, flashy stage production. This is reflected in the staging, which places the action in a specially installed-environment rather than a conventional proscenium production. A giant planked walkway stretches from the back of the stalls all the way into the scene dock. Additionally, between the theatre’s traditional boxes, there is another intersecting walkway. These are used by the characters as they journey through scenes”.
In preparation for the show, Hugh met with director Matthew Warchus and designer Rob Howell to discuss the aesthetics of the production and how they would work together to create the space. Hugh explains: “There is virtually no scenery used in the show. There are four doorways which appear to define Scrooge’s office and bedroom but that’s more or less it”.
Despite the uncluttered stage, there was one element of the installation that would have a considerable influence on Hugh’s design. He comments: “Hovering about 3m above the walkway are 200 hanging lanterns. These give off a Dickensian feel and each contains a flickering candle. There is also an in-the round speaker system. Therefore the angles and positions I could utilise for lighting were extremely limited due to heavy air traffic!”.
Hugh approached WL to provide the equipment necessary to achieve his design. He comments: “I created a basic moving light rig to allow for isolation of areas and the odd special. The vast majority of the play takes place at night, or within Ghostly visions of Scrooge’s life; with only the final scene taking place in the daytime on Christmas morning. This led me toward reliable and silent arc sources for the night blues and crisp whites”.
To achieve this, Hugh drew on 12 x Philips VL1000 arcs. He continues: “I added a single MAC Viper Performance as I needed one bright, versatile light with animation effects capability in the middle of the acting area. Finally a basic cover of 12 x ETC Source Four Lustr 2s completed the hire package. These are used heavily throughout the show for cross-light and colourwashes”.
The show has now opened and will run until 20th January.
Hugh adds: “It’s been challenging exercise creating this fresh and entertaining take on a very well-known story. I hope my lighting goes some way toward creating an atmospheric environment which not many audience members will have experienced before”.
Photos courtesy of Manuel Harlan.
Following its opening on Broadway in 1961, How to Succeed in Business Without Really Trying is considered to be one of the most iconic musicals of all time. With music by the legendary Frank Loesser, the musical is a past recipient of the Pulitzer Prize for Drama along with the Tony Award for Best Musical and Best Book. It was recently revived at London’s iconic Wilton’s Music Hall and White Light supplied the equipment.
This was the first time that Nic had worked at Wilton’s Music Hall. He states: “While the venue’s architecture is truly stunning, it does throw up a number of issues; namely the lack of overhead rigging on the forestage which is where the majority of our show was staged! I negated this by rigging all of the front of house from the circle front to get light onto the fore stage. This shallow angle front light worked well with the ‘comic book’ nature of the show and design”.
He adds: “Side and backlight was a combination of Elation SixPARs and Stairville LED Pars and we dressed the large building facade set piece with Chauvet COLORado 72 Tour battens. Having an infinite colour palette available from these few units allowed a huge number of looks to be created. Coemar Infinity M Spots were used from front of house positions and Martin MAC 700 Spots were used for backlight. I really liked being able to call on the animation wheel of the Mac 700’s to layer effects over the stage and it really added a lot to my overall design”.
Following its critically-acclaimed premiere at the Manchester International Festival in 2015, Tree of Codes arrived in London last week for a sell-out run at Sadler’s Wells. The show is a collaboration between Wayne McGregor, Jamie xx and artist Olafur Eliasson and is based upon Jonathan Safran Foer’s book of the same name. Having supplied the original show two years ago, as well as elements of the rig for the show’s run at the Garnier Opera House in Paris this January, White Light supplied the lighting for the latest performances at Sadler’s Wells.
For the rig, Rob drew on a range of fixtures including ETC Source Four Lustr 2s, EvenLED LED cyc-lighting units, Martin Viper Performances, Vari*Lite VL1000AS and ETC Revolutions. Rob states: “We opted for the Lustr2s as they allow us to achieve a wide colour range that works wonderfully for the show, particularly simulating the colour shift of low pressure sodium lights (which we have a line of) as they warm up. I opted to use the EvenLED LED tile, in an 11×7 array, partly because in Manchester we had very little room behind the cyc, but also because of its great colour range and fade quality, and ability to create dynamic transitions across the cyc.
The show sold out during its London run and achieved critical acclaim, with many commenting on its unique style and extraordinary aesthetics. Rob adds: “The lighting on the show is what links everything together: the dancers to the scenery to the music, in ways that are visually quite stunning.”