The work is based on HG Wells' 1879 novel about a Martian invasion and has the additional resonance of being played completely with a mix of orchestral and electronic musicians conducted by Wayne himself.
Directed by Bob Tomson, it boasts a star studded cast and is narrated by Liam Neeson - who appears via video - and an equally talented technical and creative team includes lighting designed by Tim Oliver and set by Ric Lipson for Stufish.
HSL's John Slevin, project managing the account, comments, "We're extremely proud to be supporting this production for the first time in the West End. The design is vibrant and fast paced helping to bring a new visual atmosphere to the piece. As always it's a great experience working with Tim through the process from initial design to opening night."
John worked closely on WoTW with Emma Nolan, HSL's account handler for all the Kenwright productions for which they are a technical supplier.
Tim's actual starting point for the creative treatment was seeing the last arena tour in 2014. He had to physically work around a substantial amount of projection which is a key to the narrative, in terms of equipment placement.
They used a mix of the Dominion's house lighting bars and installed pre-rigged trusses to provide additional lighting positions exactly where needed.
LX Bar 1 is split into three sections all independently hung on two Kinesys motors each to maximize flexibility. LX 2 and 3 are the house bars and LX 4 and 5 are pre-rigged trusses sub-hung from house bars which also move, but manually. LX 6 is just downstage of the cyc.
Two advanced trusses have been flown for the show and the circle and balcony fronts are utilized for additional lighting positions.
Around the audience, 12 x MAC Aura LED washes are installed on custom brackets to assist with special effects and immersive moments as the audience are further swept up in the action by this 'surround' lighting.
Tim chose both Martin and Robe moving lights for a number of different reasons primarily to provide "the most flexible solution to light a complex and dramatic performance that needed a lot of detail picking out".
Martin MAC Viper Performances are the main profiles - chosen for their shuttering system, brightness, versatility and good range of gobos, with 21 dotted all over the side booms and LX bars, The ones on LX 1 and 3 in particular are hugely effective in creating the sticky, red Martian weed effect all across the stage and props with a bespoke gobo.
Thirteen MAC 3 Performances on the two advance trusses are used for most of the specials on individual performers, with another four on the circle front to texture the pros arch with gobo looks.
Eight Robe MMX Spots on LX 2 provide backlight specials and treatment. These were also chosen for their multi-functionality, as were 20 x MMX WashBeams, with 12 located above the band risers on LX 4 and 5 and the balance (of WashBeams) on LX 1 for general stage washes and cross lighting.
Three Robe Pointes on drop bars do the heat Ray's emanating from the Martian Fighting Machines (MFMs - also called Tripods in the original HG Wells story).
Twenty-four GLP Impression X4s are ensconced on the side ladders and used to shoot across the stage, with another five X4S s running around the stage lip in the footlights position. Their small and compact dimensions make them ideal for this application.
HSL purchased 50 new ProLights Eclipse FC LED profiles for the project which have an RGBL (lime) colour mixing system and are extremely bright. They are on the side ladders as principal side lighting units at shin, mid and high positions, all with a frost filter for additional diffusion. They have been so impressed with the performance of these fixtures that HSL is purchasing more confirms John.
The band are back-lit with 15 x Robe CycFX 8s on LX 6 with another 9 CycFX 8s rigged on LX 2 to backlight the whole downstage area.
Twenty-two Philips Nitro strobes get a good battering as you can imagine, especially in the battle scenes, with 12 around the pros arch firing into the audience and the rest scattered around the rig.
The scenic MFM prop is also raised and lowered via HSL's Kinesys system which sidles across the stage several times during the show and was fabricated by Production Park, co-ordinated by Ben Brookes. Squeezed craftily into this are two Robe LEDWash 600s for the eyes, 2 Prolights Cobs on the wings and a Clay Paky Sharpy and ZR44 smoke machine which combine to do the heat ray effect.
Twelve MR16 'Birdies' are built in to the two main stage trucks that are rolled on and off during the performance, controlled via wireless DMX, and Jeff Wayne's special is a MAC Viper. The production is utilizing the Dominion's house follow spots.
(Jim Evans)
