LONDON – White Light continues its long association with The Royal Shakespeare Company by supplying the rig for the RSC’s production of Matilda The Musical at the Cambridge Theatre in London. The show was first created on the thrust stage of the RSC’s Courtyard Theatre; some re-thinking was therefore required for the show’s transfer into the proscenium-arch Cambridge Theatre. LD Hugh Vanstone was able to revamp and reshape the show a bit, including the late addition of lasers for dramatic effect.
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Matilda The Musical
White Light supplies the rig to the RSC’s acclaimed hit show in London
LONDON – White Light is supplying the rig for The Royal Shakespeare Company’s (RSC) production of Matilda The Musical, playing now at the Cambridge Theatre in London.
The production is directed by Matthew Warchus, choreographed by Peter Darling, designed by Rob Howell with lighting by Hugh Vanstone, sound by Simon Baker and illusions created by Paul Kieve. Working with Vanstone were associate lighting designer Tim Lutkin, production electrician Caroline Burrell, RSC lighting supervisor Andy Taylor, programmers Chris Hirst and Stuart Cross plus the Cambridge Theatre’s lighting team.
Vanstone described his aim as being to make the lighting “playful and colorful, to extend the wonky angled Flintstone-like quality embedded in Rob Howell’s superb design.”
The show was first created on the thrust stage of the RSC’s Courtyard Theatre; some re-thinking was therefore required for the show’s transfer into the proscenium-arch Cambridge Theatre. “While the spirit of the design remained the same, given the opportunity for a re-vamp I re-shaped and improved my design as we made the transition to a pros,” Vanstone notes.
A common factor across the two versions was entertainment lighting specialist White Light, who Vanstone turned to for elements of the rig in Stratford and the complete rig in London. This continues a long-running collaboration that this past year has seen White Light supply the rigs for both Vanstone’s The Wizard of Oz and Shrek.
For Matilda in London, White Light has supplied a conventional rig that includes ETC Source Four Profiles and Source Four Pars, L&E Nano-Strip M11 striplights, High End Systems Dataflash strobes and Robert Juliat Cyrano followspots. A diverse selection of moving lights range from Vari*Lite VL500s, VL3000Q Washes and VL1000AS Spots to Martin Mac700 Profiles and MacIII units in both Profile and Performance form, plus 12 of JB Lighting’s JBLED A7 Zoom LED washlights and 12 Thomas PixelLine LED battens.
White Light also supplied effects including Look Solutions Viper and Power Tiny smoke machines and Unique hazers, MDG Atmosphere haze machines plus Big Shot confetti cannons.
A grandMA Light console controls the rig. Vanstone is also making use of two RSC Lightlock lighting stabilizers to allow him to rig moving lights on short drift bars without the bars oscillating every time the lights moved.
“Given the precision focuses deployed from these two FOH units, the Lightlocks work spectacularly well,” Vanstone notes.
White Light added a new element to the show during the London rehearsal period. “At the Courtyard, we used Par Cans and the architecture of the theatre to create the Chokey – a heinous solitary confinement/torture device designed by Miss Trunchbull which she uses to incarcerate each and every one of her pupils,” Vanstone explains. “In London, Matthew Warchus came up with the idea of using lasers instead, and my associate Tim Lutkin worked with White Light’s Darren Howard to come up with a thrilling effect at the Cambridge.”
Howard and a team from White Light spent one Sunday in the theatre installing 12 lasers for a dramatic effect.
“White Light’s service and expertise was exemplary both on the original Stratford production and now at the Cambridge,” Vanstone says. “They helped me squeeze the show I wanted into the budget available and, as always, were a pleasure to work with.”
The RSC’s production of Matilda The Musical is playing now at the Cambridge Theatre in London. The production is directed by Matthew Warchus, choreographed by Peter Darling, designed by Rob Howell with lighting by Hugh Vanstone, sound by Simon Baker and illusions created by Paul Kieve. Working with Vanstone were associate lighting designer Tim Lutkin, production electrician Caroline Burrell, RSC lighting supervisor Andy Taylor, programmers Chris Hirst and Stuart Cross plus the Cambridge Theatre’s lighting team.
Matilda has already been nominated for nine awards in the WhatsOnStage.com awards, while Vanstone has been nominated in the White Light-sponsored Best Lighting Designer category, albeit for his work on a different show, the musical Ghost.
Photos by Simon Annand. Courtesy of AKA.
