Unusual Services was commissioned by P&O to provide production services for the naming ceremony for Ocean Village on April 28th and for a naming ceremony for the twin ships Adonia & Oceana on May 21st in Southampton.
Maintaining Unusual’s theatre roots, Alan Jacobi, MD of Unusual brought in Sheelagh Barnard as creative director to devise the content for the shows.
The new cruise ship Ocean Village came first on April 28th with an upbeat stage show on the pool deck. All the staging, truss, lighting, sound equipment, props and wardrobe had to be craned from the dockside - effectively up a 14 storey block of flats. The dockside cranes were built 64 years ago, when cargo ships were much smaller. The crane only just had the reach to lower the gear onto the pool deck - (better still with the advantage of low tide). In all, over six hours of craning was involved in positioning all the staging, sound, lights and show elements on board.
A pre-rig was carried out prior to short sea trials. The main fit up period started on Sunday morning for the show on Monday night. Power Logistics brought in a generator, which stayed on the dockside with cabling running up the side of the ship to the showsite on deck. Being the month reputed for showers, it rained perversely and incessantly for a 24 hour period during the fit up. Rehearsals were a decidedly wet and windy affair!
The show itself was dance based with a company of 20 performers and five aerial percussionists on the backdrop - all under the direction of choreographer Kim Gavin. Prior to arriving on board, the performers had a week or rehearsals in a studio in London. Special guest Ulrika Jonson did the honours with the ‘bottle smash’ and the naming. The evening was rounded off by an exceptional pyrotechnics display from a barge moored in Southampton Water.
Three weeks later, but this time, a few hundred yards down the dockside, work started on the inauguration of the ‘White Sisters’ Adonia & Oceana. The theme of the show devised by Sheelagh was ‘doubles’ and the performance area was on a 200 metre by 60 metre site on the dockside. The site was made secure by a wall of branded sea containers stacked two high around the three open sides of the site augmented by Heras entrances and exits.
Work started a week prior to the event with the installation of temporary power, production village cabins, welfare facilities and catering. Covered seating tribunes were built over a four day period for the 2000 invited guests. Structures were erected by Unusual Rigging for the screens and lighting required a four day build and focus period. The sound installation, under the direction of John Del Nero started the day after the lighting team with the screens and VT crew arriving the day before dress rehearsals. In all, a technical team of 70 were required to install and run the event.
The show company under Kim Gavin’s direction totalled in the region of 150 including comperes Matthew Pinsent and James Cracknell, The Band of The Royal Marines, The Adjutant General Corps Band, Jazzmanix Gospel Choir, 20 dancers, two ice skaters and a couple of horses. An eclectic mix woven together with the doubles theme. As with the show on Ocean Village, the stage management team was supplied by Simon Garrett of Pandemonium Productions.
An ingenious rig between two dockside cranes and an imaginative approach by Pyrovision contributed to a spectacular fireworks finale to the evening.
Within the broadcast area in the production village, Unusual accommodated both the BBC and BT. The show was broadcast live to the other ships in P&O’s fleet.
The ship naming and ‘bottle smash’ was carried out by The Princess Royal and Zara Phillips on her first royal engagement.
