Director Lucy Bailey's production, which stars All Creatures Great and Small star Christopher Timothy as Inspector Hubbard, required an inspired solution for its curtain tracks and revolving centre stage.
The production's technical manager Nick Bryan approached Triple E for a solution to replace the play's previous track system, which was complex, cumbersome, and too time consuming to tour with.
"The new track needed to follow an elliptical void in the ceiling and be able to travel around the full circumference multiple times," explains Bryan. "Triple E's ChainTrack was the only solution I could find that didn't require a travelling motor and all the additional complexity that I was keen to eliminate from the previous system."
To ensure a perfect match, Bryan packaged actual segments of the ceiling being used in the set and transported it to Triple E's Kent HQ. There, Triple E constructed an oval ChainTrack, and delivered it to the opening venue of the tour, the Mercury Theatre, Colchester where it kicked off in February.
The ChainTrack system consists of a machined UHMW section, which carries the upper portion of a 3/8" duplex roller chain. The UHMW is inserted into an aluminium extruded profile designed by and exclusively extruded for Triple E.
"My decision to replace the track was based on the length of time the previous one took to build and the time lost in touring it," continues Bryan. "By having a static motor we were able to dispense with three power rails from the track.
"The ChainTrack system is also very easy to build in comparison with the previous track, as the previous system had eight sections and each join required 20 fixings to connect to the track and the power rails for the travelling motor. The ChainTrack, however, only requires the track to be split into four sections and each join is fixed by just one plate. I would estimate this new system has saved us over 90 minutes per move, which is fantastic."
Triple E also specified a simple Open/Close/Stop push button controller with variable speed to control theChainTrack.
"The new track also needed to be quiet in operation and have a wider range of operating speeds," says Bryan. "The Triple E team have exceeded their brief in this respect and the ChainTrack system out-performs our previous system in all aspects, particularly its durability and ease of touring. I'm very happy with it and the support from Triple E has been exceptional."
(Jim Evans)
