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PRG Europe Makes Getting it Wrong Look Stunning for Acorn Antiques
The production is essentially “a play within a play” about the putting on of a stereotypically chaotic production, which climaxes with an over the top rosy West End musical based on the Acorn Antiques shop. To achieve this it features three very different sets, used consecutively during the performance. The first is a rehearsal room, which gives way to a theatrical technical rehearsal in the ‘Enoch Powell Arts Centre’, followed by an over the top, colourful Musical.
The lighting requirements of the three sets meant the team at PRG Europe had to supply a very diverse rig. “The set determined the rig and dictated that some equipment could only be used for one scene,” says Andrew. “The final set, for the Musical, also restricted much of the use of back and side light.”
Another challenge was with the show’s programming. Theatrical disasters and amateurish lighting effects have had to be faithfully recreated, but with such style and panache that the overall show provides the stunning visual appeal that audiences will expect. In order to fulfil this taxing brief, Andrew specified 27 VL1000TS spots and nine VL2000 washes from PRG Europe, plus a large conventional rig comprising over 200 fixtures and six DHA Digital Light Curtains.
Controlled from a WholeHog II, the programmability of the VLs was essential to recreate the chaotic effects that the production needed. The fixtures’ colour changing was also vital for the brash, eager looks for the ‘musical’ segment.
“The brief was very much to keep it bright and highlight the clichés of theatrical disasters,” says Andrew. “Act Two - the technical rehearsal in the Enoch Powell arts centre - especially had to have the feeling of amateurish over-eagerness in the lighting!”
To achieve this, he programmed the show with a deliberately heavy-handed use of colour (green with red, for example), bigger than needed snap cues, inappropriate use of live colour scrollers, live gobo changes, obviously wrong button pushes that give unexpected looks and, naturally, work lights being on at the wrong time! This also tied in with the script, where the occasional ‘wrongness’ of the lighting was highlighted by character dialogue.
A challenge for PRG Europe was the very limited time the company had in which to put the show together. “We had to be extremely flexible and able to respond at very short notice,” says PRG Europe’s Peter Marshall. “Because of the nature of the production, the information we received was changing regularly and the final rig was actually put together in about three days before Christmas, ready to load in at the beginning of January.”
Receiving excellent audience responses, Acorn Antiques is playing at the Theatre Royal in London’s Haymarket until August.
24th March 2005
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