The show was originally created by the York Theatre Royal at the National Railway Museum, directed by Damian Cruden, designed by Joanna Scotcher with lighting by Richard G Jones. "I have lit a lot of shows at York over the past ten years, and know Damian Cruden, the artistic director - so when the idea came up for The Railway Children he asked me to be involved, and I was very happy to be part of such an unusual project," Jones recalls of the show, for which he received a nomination in the 2008 TMA Theatre Awards.
In London, the show is presented in a 'black box' theatre space created within the arches of the Eurostar terminal, placing audience members on raked seating along adjacent platforms with the performance area - and the railway track on which the show's pivotal scene takes place and steam engine appears - between them.
"The show is basically the same as that seen in York - same script, same set, more seats," Jones explains, "but the biggest problem for lighting was the lack of power anywhere near the platforms. We have actually disconnected three of the escalators and are using that power to run the lighting." The designer added additional lighting trusses behind each seating block, but retained the critical central truss running along the line of the railway track, these positions all put in place by Unusual Rigging.
Jones' rig includes a wide range of fixture types, each chosen for a specific task but also to minimise the weight of the rig so as to keep within the limited weight loadings imposed by the Eurostar terminal's arches. White Light supplied the entire system, including ETC Revolution spotlights and Martin TW1 washlights, ETC Source Fours and Source Four Pars, Par Cans, Strand Cantata Fresnels and CCT Minuette Fresnels plus Rainbow colour scrollers, all run from White Light and ETC touring dimmer racks.
Control was from a Strand 530i console with 510i backup, allowing the showfile from York to be used as the basis of the London lighting. White Light also supplied an array of smoke and haze effects, including Unique 2.1 haze machines, Power Tiny and Viper smoke machines, and Jem AF-1 fans, many used to bring the show's steam engine to dramatic life - health-and-safety prohibits it from running under its own power and the train is actually pushed and pulled by a diesel engine located outside the station.
"We had about seven days to tech the show originally in York, and have had the same again in London," Jones notes, "though this includes a lot of tech and dress sessions to fit in the six teams of 10 children; we had three tech sessions to rehearse all of the train and truck movements before we got the children onstage."
Working with Jones to get the show on in London were production manager Richard Bullimore and production electrician Fraser Hall, along with associate LD Matt Daw, lighting programmer Christopher Hirst, chief electrician David Treanor and deputy electrician John Maddox. "Fraser and the team have been totally fantastic," notes the designer, "with the installation of the kit in the venue amazingly neat. We did have some difficulties caused by the venue - in particular, the temperature in the roof before the air cooling system went in was unbelievable, our own private sauna for the focus sessions, which some of the moving lights were a little unhappy about. White Light just kept fixing the units and it was all fine in the end."
(Jim Evans)
