Unusual on board for Matilda in Abu Dhabi

UAE - The multi award winning Matilda The Musical paid a flying visit to Abu Dhabi’s Etihad Arena in June. This was the first time that the production, which has won over 101 international awards had ever been staged in an arena venue, so production manager Matt Towell was pleased to have Unusual Rigging & Engineering (URE) on board to ensure everything went according to plan.

“The show is pretty much a carbon copy of the West End production,” explained Matt. “However, due to the difficulties of some of the venues, we chose to put all the scenery on a ground support truss. Emily Egleton, design engineer at Unusual in the UK drew all the ground support plans for us and we also carried out a test build at Unusual’s HQ in Bugbrooke, Northampton. We then liaised with the team in the UAE, and once stage size and location were established, the URE team were tasked with making the arena look like a theatre auditorium and to make the rigging for the entire production work as it should.”

The URE team headed by Khalid Ali, also supplied track for some of the flying pieces and Kinesys motors for the items which could not be tracked and had to fly up and down. With a plan in place and pre-rig set to occur the day before the show opened, the production was hit with a major delay on the arrival of the kit via freight. ‘Without the support of the URE team, this could have become a major problem. However, with Denis Bramhall at the helm, URE really pulled it out of the bag for us, quickly quoting and organising to double up on the pre-rig kit so that when the equipment did arrive, we could just unload it and get it hung immediately.”

The brief stop at the Etihad Arena was the final destination on the Matilda International Tour. “Despite the brief run of just six shows, we were thrilled to be able to stage this amazing show in the impressive arena, and delighted that the audiences who attended got the authentic theatre experience that the production demands. I can always trust Unusual to get the job done whatever the challenges of the show or the demands of the venue and I’m looking forward to being back with Mamma Mia next summer,” concluded Matt.