DEVON, U.K. — LD Richard Lambert lit Shadowlands, a production staged by the Unleashed Theatre Company at Buckfast Abbey’s Schiller Hall here, with a lighting rig that included Jack and Nick 600 Wash fixtures from D.T.S. Lighting. The production, directed by Jude Earnshaw, featured a set design by Roger Bloxham and Mark Cartier. It was produced in commemoration of the 50th anniversary of the death of one of its main characters, the author and philosopher/theologian C.S. Lewis.
Adapted to the live stage from its original 1985 TV drama format, Shadowlands portrays Lewis and his relationship with the American poet Joy Gresham, who died of bone cancer after they met, became a couple and married.
Lewis chronicled his grief, and the challenge to his faith, in his book, A Grief Observed, which he published with a pseudonym. The BBC screenplay for Shadowlands was written by William Nicholson.
Bloxham and Cartier’s set design takes the story from several different settings — from hospital waiting rooms to university offices to Greek islands and London apartments. Lambert credited the D.T.S. Jack and Nick 600 Wash moving heads for their power and versatility.
The Jack, Lambert said, “is extremely versatile as you can expand the iris and it becomes a wash.” Of the Nick 600 Wash, Lambert called the Nick 600 Wash “a really powerful LED wash fixture — fast, with an excellent zoom and very light in weight.”
He added that with just these two types of D.T.S. fixtures he could easily cover the stages involved. In the case of Shadowlands, the Nick and Jack fixtures were downstage L-R on stands, providing a combination of tight key lighting on the actor’s faces, and general cross stage / set illumination.
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