White Light in the Frame for The Comedy About A Bank Robbery
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From the team behind the Olivier Award-winning The Play That Goes Wrong, The Comedy About A Bank Robbery is an hilarious and dynamic show focusing on the robbery of Minneapolis City Bank – and everything that goes wrong in the process. The play has run in the West End for three years now at The Criterion Theatre and has been a smash hit with audiences and critics alike. It is now embarking on a UK tour and White Light is supplying the lighting equipment.
A Mischief Theatre Company production, The Comedy About A Bank Robbery is produced by Kenny Wax and Stage Presence in association with Birmingham Rep and features a lighting design by David Howe. David comments: “Bank Robbery is a play where the situation really brings the comedy to life. You have an escaped convict set on capturing a priceless diamond from the bank and with him his eccentric sidekick, trickster girlfriend and the maintenance man. The brief for me was to support the writing, which is extremely fast paced, as we swiftly move from one location to another, often by the way of musical montages. I worked closely with the other brilliant designers David Farley (Set Designer), Roberto Surface (Costume) and Jon Fiber (Sound) to create the world our writers envisaged. The writers were the performers in the original West End company and therefore the show evolved massively in rehearsals and it was very much an organic, collaborative process”.
Whereas the script remains the same as that performed in the West End, there were some changes to the production that needed to be implemented for the tour due to both space and logistical requirements. David comments: “Structurally, the set is quite complex. It may look simple but contains much trickery to help achieve the visual and, often, gravity defying effects. David Farley produced a range of visualisations for each venue which proved invaluable to both producers and myself when planning the show. When I originally laid-out the West End design on paper (yes I use paper!), the show hadn’t even started rehearsals, so I had to design-in as much flexibility into the rig as possible; knowing the script would evolve. Coming back to the production for the tour I’ve been able to pare back and make stronger statements which give it vibrancy and set the tone from the start.
He continues: “The West End’s rig is a mixture of Viper Performance Spots, Revolutions, MAC Auras and TW1s. For the tour, we have a simpler package of MAC Encore (Cold) and MAC Auras as the basic spot/wash combination, a couple of LED Lustrs for a low angle cross light and Colour Force Battens to provide a colour highlight on the set. I’ve been really impressed with the MAC Encore’s flexibility – not only with the quality of LED light, but also the really great colour mixing which has meant I’ve been able to replicate some of the warmer colour tones I use in the West End version. It used to send a chill through me when people requested ‘bright for comedy’ lighting, but not on this show. In fact, darkness and shade in many ways are key to creating the ambience and location in our world of ‘The Robbery’. If anything the darkness plays against the insane comedy action of the play”.
The Comedy About A Bank Robbery opened in Birmingham in September and is currently at the Theatre Royal Plymouth and will tour until mid-2019. As with most touring productions, the tight schedule meant that David had to work closely with his team to ensure his intricate design could be recreated across the country. He comments: “The show closes on a Saturday night before loading in on Monday and opening Tuesday. I remain indebted to my team who manage to make it all work – the initial team from Birmingham Rep led by Andy Fidgeon, Programmer Alex Boucher along with my Touring Production Electrician Sonic Harrison who re-focuses/updates the show each week”.
Photos courtesy of Robert Day.
Located in London’s West End, the Jermyn Street Theatre is one of the capital’s most renowned studio theatres. It was recently re-launched under new Artistic Director Tom Littler as a full-scale producing theatre, creating around eight to ten in-house productions every year. One of these is Tonight at 8:30 by Noel Coward. The Lighting Designer was Tim Mascall who called upon White Light to supply the lighting equipment.
Tim was brought on board by Artistic Director Tom Litter who directed all of the plays, with Stella Powell directing the Tomorrow at Noon pieces. Tim comments: “One of the biggest elements of my brief was to create a rig flexible enough to cover 12 different plays with as minimal turn around time as possible in between each. The structure of each evening is that between the first and second piece there is a ‘pause’ of around 5 minutes in which the audience remain in their seats whilst the set is turned around and then the second turn around happens during the interval. This was all achieved with some meticulous planing and scene change choreography from Set Designer Louie Whitemore and Associate Director Gabby Bird”.
The show has recently finished its run following critical acclaim. It marks one of several productions that WL is currently supplying across London including West End smashes such as Harry Potter and the Cursed Child(LD – Neil Austin), Tina Turner – The Musical (LD – Bruno Poet), Consent(LD – Rick Fisher) along with Describe the Night at Hampstead Theatre (LD – Johanna Town), Mayfly at the Orange Tree Theatre (LD – Christopher Nairne), Fatherland at Lyric Hammersmith (LD – Jon Clark) and Why is the Sky Blue at the Southwark Playhouse (LD – Elliot Griggs).