Tim Mitchell brings modern feel to King Kong
Published: MEA
SOUTH AFRICA: Gearhouse’s Splitbeam has announced that it will be providing lighting fixtures for the upcoming restaging of the ‘all African jazz opera’ King Kong. The production is taking place at the Fugard Theatre in Cape Town later this month and reportedly offer lighting deign that ‘while remaining authentic to the period, will bring the piece in line with today’s technological advances.
‘We want to get away from any preconceived idea of what a musical should sound like, to get rid of all the “Broadwaydisation”, to stay true to the original and bring it into the 21st Century,’ explained theatre director, Jonathan Munby. ‘What we are staging in this new version are things that they could not do originally which is a heightened stylisation of the boxing scenes and the use of physical theatre.’
‘Lighting has changed dramatically even in the last 10 years, let alone since the late 1950s,’ furthered lighting designer, Tim Michell. ‘Lighting design really started to sit on its own from the 1950s onwards and certainly in the UK, lighting designers such as Michael Northern and Joe Davies, laid the foundations of what we are today as lighting designers. I am hoping to bring colour and movement which was not possible in the day. “We’re using practical lamps as well as moving lights which are clearly modern, I will be using a lot of tungsten instruments to give a warmer theatrical feel.’
In order to achieve this design, Slipbeam will deploy Robe Robin DLS Profiles, Longman Phenix Bar 300Bs, ETC Source 4 50Degs and ETC Source 4 PARs.