White Light Bourne again with Early Adventures

UK - Matthew Bourne’s latest show Early Adventures is making a triumphant return as part of the company’s 30th anniversary celebrations. The show sees Matthew Bourne return to his roots with a programme of early pieces that launched his career and saw the birth of his enigmatic style. Following the company’s work on Matthew Bourne’s previous show The Red Shoes, White Light has been called upon once again to provide the lighting equipment.
Early Adventures is a triple bill of classic Bourne work: The Infernal Galop, Town and Country and Watch with Mother. The set has been designed by long-time collaborator Lez Brotherston with a lighting design by Andy Murrell. Andy comments: “My role was to create a design that would be suitable for the overall show whilst also ensuring that each piece had its own individual identity. For instance, The Infernal Galop envisions France through an uptight English imagination, while Town and Country is very much a pastiche of a bygone 1930s whereas Watch with Mother is closest to a more contemporary dance feel.”
Andy worked closely with both Lez and Matthew to ensure his design managed to create the feel that was essential to all three pieces. Andy comments: “Once I decided on my look and feel I immediately approached WL to provide me with the exact equipment I needed”.
Andy drew on a range of fixtures, including 16 x Martin MAC 700 Washlights, Philips Vari*Lite 1000s AS, ETC Source Four Profiles and ETC ColorSource Profiles. There is also a full range of Look Solutions Smoke, Haze and Low Smoke machines. The entire show is programmed on an ETC Gio Console.
Andy adds, “The moving lights offered me enough flexibility to create the variety of looks needed in each of the pieces and were also adaptable enough for the ever-changing needs of rehearsal.”
Due to the show visiting so many different venues, Andy had to be extremely selective in his choice of equipment. He states: “This couldn’t be an enormous rig – the get-in and get-out time is limited and the scale of venues varies widely. Therefore we had to make the most out of the fixtures I chose. The ETC ColorSource Profiles were a particularly useful addition to the rig as they added good colour options meaning they could replace the multiple units normally required for such variety.”
Early Adventures visits Blackpool’s Grand Theatre next week before visiting York, Liverpool, Sadler’s Wells in London and Northampton before an eventual stop in Los Angeles.
(Jim Evans)

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