The opportunity for Unusual to work with Imagination on their spectacular new production of Peter Pan was an especially enjoyable one, since the project was to draw upon the full pedigree of Unusual and its broad range of skills. Fundamental to this project was the fact that a complex theatre show was being put into a concert hall for a limited period of time. The requirement for ‘economic practicality’ was at the top of the list. However, being Christmas time, Santa’s list was long and Unusual had much to do.
Working on the simple premise that a big show will have scenery, the first request was for the means to suspend and reveal various scenic elements. Unusual, designed, built (including part-fabrication) a full mothergrid system to accommodate the sets. 165 metres of truss, weighing two tonnes was suspended from the building structure using 15 rigging points.
At this point, the stage closely resembled a giant industrial sculpture. To remedy the situation, a proscenium arch was hung from the downstage truss of the mothergrid using part of an 18 metre diameter Telestage truss circle, with additional straight pieces for the legs.
Effectively, The Royal Festival Hall was now converted into a theatre. Unusual, renewing their acquaintance with the lighting designer Durham Marenghi then installed the structures to house the lighting. Over the stage Unusual provided three 20m long mini beam lighting trusses each rigged on three double-braked Liftket chain hoists to allow lowering for maintenance. In the auditorium, one 22m long mini beam lighting truss rigged on four hoists and each side, a 7m long vertical truss for lighting positions to illuminate the auditorium ceiling. Further lighting ladders were installed in the stage wings and lighting positions were created around the proscenium arch.
For the sound installation, the main stage PA was rigged from the front truss of the mother grid.
As well as providing the “fly tower”, Unusual provided the rigging and automation of the flown elements of the show. A host of inventive solutions and equipment were employed for scene changing including point hoists, winches to create a track and lift system, and a motorised beam trolley with two chain hoists.
The highlight of the production was the flying of Peter Pan over the audience. Two winches were used to create a pair of bridles that attached to the waist pick-ups on the performer’s flying harness via short “stingers”. Unusual designed a control system where the winches were linked and incorporated dynamic load monitoring, so that the tension of the cables could be monitored in real time. The winches were located at the rear of the roof void. The wires were diverted through the roof void to positions, where they emerged through the ceiling into the auditorium through existing holes, since no new holes could be made.
Although capable of achieving a faster speed the system runs at a maximum of 2m/sec transporting Peter across the distance in a little over 15 seconds.
All special items including sheaves, bracketry and truss specials were designed by Unusual’s mechanical and structural designers and fabricated by their in-house steel fabricators. The performer flying winches were designed by their mechanical and electrical design team and assembled and automated in house. All steel wire rope and associated fittings were assembled in Unusual’s wire rope shop.
The ‘out of sight’ elements of the performer flying system such as bracketry and diverters were installed during nightshifts from early in December. The remainder of the show infrastructure and the control systems were all installed over a 48 hour weekend period prior to delivery of the scenic elements. Set installation took place on Monday and Tuesday with programming during the nightshifts. The production was handed over to the Stage Management team for rehearsals on Wednesday morning.
