Portfolio, Clients, Projects

Unusual Clients

Our clients include:

Art Angel Trust, Artichoke Productions, Arup, Aston Martin, Birmingham City Council, BBC, Cameron Mackintosh, Disney, Edinburgh International Festival, EON Productions - James Bond Films, Garsington Opera, Goldstar - Mamma Mia!, Horsepower International, Imagination, IMG, ITV, Jack Morton Worldwide, Jaguar, Live Nation, London Internatinal Festival of Theatre, London Film Festival, Manchester Commonwealth Games 2002, Manchester United FC, Mansell, P & O, RAF Museum Cosford, RAF Museum Hendon, The Barbican Centre, The Ministry of Defence, The Really Useful Group, The Royal National Theatre, The Royal Opera House, The National Space Centre, The Science Museum, Toyota, Volkswagen, Volvo, Warner Brothers

Unusual Theatre Rigging - How it all works - Autumn 2008

Oliver!, Imagine This, Mary Poppins, Mamma Mia! and Cats
Our theatre work breaks down into three main parts: Touring, West End shows and stage engineering. The first two components concern making the creative product - the show - work in a venue and the third component addresses the need to make venue work better when receiving the creative product.

The creative team are those with the vision of the experience that they wish to deliver to the audience. The degree of technical understanding amongst creative teams varies enormously, so the process of realising the vision falls in the first place to the chief interpreter, otherwise known as the production manager. The production manager has a wide range of technical experts ‘on-call’. This is where Unusual Rigging fits into the picture.

St Pancras International - an Unusual Solution - November 2007

Projects – Project Rigging – Corporate – Special Events – St. Pancras

On November 6th, Her Majesty The Queen, accompanied by The Duke of Edinburgh, launched High Speed 1, the UK's first section of high speed railway and officially opened St Pancras International Station, the magnificently restored Victorian train station in the centre of London.

The high profile event presented a particular rigging problem. Suspended AV, lighting and sound equipment could not be picked up from the space below the final hanging position, due to the fact that this was platform area and was still in use. The rigging solution provided by Unusual was to lift everything in one work zone and then to ‘drive’ it up to 150 metres down the roof structure I-beams using 5 tonne motorised beam trollies into a position where it was dead hung for the show.

Newcastle Theatre Royal Flying System Installation

Portfolio – Stage Engineering – Newcastle TR – Theatre

Newcastle Theatre Royal - Summer 2006

Current Portfolio 2006-7

Projects

To view our current body of work, there are monthly entries in the news section of this website.

Lord Mayors Show November 2008

News – Portfolio – Mayor

Unusual Rigging installed a truss arch to span Princes Street for The Corporation of London for the Lord Mayors Show. Preassembled into sections to fit a flatbed, the arch was erected in less than two hours on site. Branding was applied and the BBC suspended a remote controlled camera from the arch. Further work was undertaken by Unusual for the Territorial Army’s TA100 campaign. Branding was applied to site structures and also parade vehicles.

La Machine – Liverpool 08

News – Portfolio – Projects – Production Services – Project Rigging – Machine – Special Events

Presenting La Machine, Liverpool’s most memorable European Capital of Culture event produced by Artichoke and technically co-ordinated by Unusual, was a massive challenge. Unusual proved that an energetic mix of lateral and innovative thinking, technical expertise, close teamwork and engaging individuals with a dynamic range of skills and personalities from a wide variety of backgrounds to get behind the project can be a hugely rewarding exercise.

26th June 2007 – Riverdance re-opens The Gaiety Theatre, Dublin

News – Projects – Stage Engineering – Gaiety – Theatre

Behind the headline is the story of a refurbishment programme, which pragmatists saw as audacious and the more adventurous considered being achievable.

Garsington Opera 2001-2008

Projects – Venue Rigging – Garsington – Theatre

Set in the idyllic countryside just outside Oxford, Garsington Opera is a venture, where the outdoor theatre is re-created every June for a season of Opera.

The Producers - Theatre Royal Drury Lane - 2006

Projects – Project Rigging – Producers – Theatre

“The Producers” is a heavy show squeezed into about a third of the depth of the Theatre Royal Drury Lane stage.