When rehearsing and devising “Orchid” we, as an ensemble, were very much set on having a rather abstract and creative performance and we were all perfectly willing to take risks which allowed us to trail and experiment with amazing idea’s which all of us were having. Through research into different stimuli such as Samuel Beckett and Sarah Kane as well as a “Russian sleep deprivation” experiment, we were instantly hooked on creating something weirdly wonderful to invoke a huge range of emotions and reactions within our audience. We wanted to creep out, horrify, amaze, befuddle, inspire, question and provoke thought into the audience, we wanted each audience member to interpret the show in their own way. With all these hopes and ambitions towards our show, varying themes began to naturally surface in which we all agreed upon. “What is the theme of the design of light? What is the concept? Everything begins with efforts to respond to these questions. Lighting design without any subject often turn out to be a mere collection of consumption-oriented ideas” (Mende, 2000, 22). Themes such as Madness, Lunacy, Pseudo-randomness, Denial, Sadism, OCD, Passion, Obsessiveness and Pain & Pleasure. With these themes I, as a light designer, began to gather initial thoughts on how to create some cool lighting effects that would communicate our themes to the audience. One of my first thoughts was how the lack of light can create an eerie and creepy affect as well as an immersive and intimate one. Within one of the first rehearsal’s we had with each other we tried turning the lights out and trying out a scene in darkness with each of us holding only torches. It gave a nicely uncomfortable affect for an audience member and also made cool shadow effects across the stage; only we quickly discovered it was difficult to be seen or to see. so we began to think how we could recreate this effect, whilst also allowing us to see onstage. Immediately we knew that the stage should be dimly lit with a soft edge so that it gives the effect that the darkness is seeping into the light.

(Memory Scene) (#1)

As can be seen in photo #1 above during the memory scene most of the focused light, throughout the performance, is directed centre stage and bleeds into darkness as it gets closer to the edge of the stage. When rehearsing we kept most of the action in the centre of the stage, so that the important information can be seen by the audience, and choreographed the creatures around the edge of the stage to keep them concealed in the darkness as much as we could. Also when stood on the edges of the stage in the darkness, it creates a nice shadow effect on the centre of the stage which would loom over the action. This created a nice atmosphere in which the creatures could be seen and both not seen, giving the effect of always being watched from the dark, until they suddenly stepped into the light, as if from nowhere.

When it came to designing the lights for the individual scenes, we knew we wanted to create this dim shadow effect as discussed above; however we needed to create something that would fit the atmosphere of the content of the scenes and also we wanted to create a different atmosphere during the orchid scenes to help separate the world of the man and his orchid, from the world inside his mind. In order to do this, during the Orchid scenes, we simply intensified the two lighting states we had. What I mean is we made the edges of the stage even dimmer and the centre even brighter and instead of using a soft edge, we made it a hard edge. This gave the effect of the light pushing back the darkness and keeping it from seeping in. There was a clear separation between light and dark, rather than them fading into each other. For the scenes within the man’s mind and is inner creatures taunting him; they were all centred around a certain theme and so we wanted the lights to relay those themes as well. The memory scene had a hint of blue filters among the lighting, giving a calm and comfortable yet eerie and taunting feel to it. This linked up well with the slow, almost “creeping”, movements of the creatures as well as the pace and intent in their dialogue. (Refer back to Image #1)

In the Sadism scene there was a lot of action on stage including the fight scene as well as the game show style presentation of said fight scene. So the lighting for the fight scene we knew had to be at a bright enough level for the actors in the fight to be able to clearly see what they were doing for health and safety reasons. We simply used boxed edged lights to create sharp edges on the stage to seem like an arena during the fight. We wanted the game show aspect of the scene to be a complete contrast to the savagery of the fight scene to make the audience feel uncomfortable and give the fight more of an impact. So to create the atmosphere of a game show the use of strobe lighting during the exits and entrances of Jacob Kay (playing the role of the game show host) gave more of an effect that the audience where in a live studio setting.

(Sadism scene, #2)

During Jacob Kay’s speech in the sadism scene, he tells the story of a man and the moon who speak to each other. This came through the use of research into the lunar effect; the moon and the effects it has on people and animals(and of course the brilliant writing of Aiden Clarke). We discovered that there are many legends and theories on the full moon and how it can make people and animals act and respond out of character and cause madness and can cause/heighten paranormal activity. During this speech, we agreed that because of the intensity and emotion that comes from this speech it was best delivered from a spot light. Moreover we wanted the spotlight to come from just above the game show host, so that it gives the effect that the spotlight is in fact the moon itself and it shines down on him driving him crazy.

References:

Kaoru Mende, (2000) Designing with light and shadow,  Mulgrave: Images publishing.

Memory Scene: Image #1, Lincoln School of Fine & Performing Arts (2017) IAOWAYH photos [image]. Available from https://www.flickr.com/photos/61839232@N02/with/34016768033/ [accessed 27 May 2017].

Sadism Scene: Image #2, Lincoln School of Fine & Performing Arts (2017) IAOWAYH photos [image]. Available from https://www.flickr.com/photos/61839232@N02/with/34016768033/ [accessed 27 May 2017].