The Lighting Designer

The Lighting Designer: What is ‘good lighting’?  by Nigel Levings.  Platform Paper No 49 November 2016 (Currency House, Sydney)

Sydney Launch by Lindy Hume, artistic director of Opera Queensland
Monday November 14, 2016, 6pm at Belvoir Street Theatre, Surry Hills.

Adelaide Launch by Rachel Healy, co-artistic director of the Adelaide Festival
Tuesday November 15, 2016, 6pm at Imprints Booksellers, 107 Hindley St.

Free, but essential to book at info@currencyhouse.org.au

Media enquiries to Martin Portus at mportus@optusnet.com.au
Pdf available on request.

Posted by Frank McKone
November 4

Media Release: About The Author
Nigel Levings is one of Australia’s leading theatre lighting designers and in his early career was the first to be fully employed by an Australian theatre company as a lighting designer. In a distinguished career he has lit over 490 original productions including 174 operas and 28 musicals. He has lit opera in St Petersburg, Paris, Washington, London, Cardiff, Berlin, Baden Baden, Innsbruck, Bregenz, New
York, Los Angeles, Chicago, Houston, Dallas, Seoul and Toronto as well as all the major opera houses of Australia. 

His awards for lighting design include the Helpmann and Green Room Awards, the Los Angeles Ovation Award and the Canadian Dora Mava Moore Award. On Broadway he has won two Outer Circle Critics Awards, a Drama Desk and a Tony Award. He was awarded the Centenary Federation Medal by the Australian Government for his services to opera lighting and, in 2003, was honoured by the SA Great – Arts Award. 

Recent work includes: Die tote Stadt, Of Mice and Men and the world premiere of Bliss for Opera Australia: Maria de Buenos Aires for Victorian Opera; Romeo et Juliette for Korea National Opera; The Book of Everything at the New Victory Theatre, New York; The King and I for Opera Australia and Gordon Frost; Cloudstreet for State Opera of South Australia, Disgraced for Melbourne Theatre
Company; Machu Picchu for State Theatre Company of South Australia; Don Carlos for Opera Australia.

Contents
1. This Lighting Designer
2. The Craft of Lighting Design
3. Industrial Issues
4. The Technology
5. The Opinions
6. The Lighting Designer and Good Lighting

I, as a one-time drama teacher, am very pleased to note that Nigel Levings begins: “I grew up in Melbourne and in primary school our Year 6 teacher, Mr Edgar Seppings, gave me my first brush with the theatre. I was too young at the time for much recall but I do remember the magic of that lit space and the surrounding darkness.”

If I were still teaching I would be sure to invite Nigel to speak to my students, especially about the personal attributes they should aspire to. 

He writes: When I get it right, my lighting design springs from a desire to share with an audience this love of light: visibility, poetic density of meaning, but above all pure, succulent, sensuous, visual pleasure and Good lighting is intelligent lighting. It springs from deep thought about the text and the director's interpretation of it.

This is not a geek speaking, but an artistic designer.  His personal history informs his development in and experience of the craft, the industry, the technology and the changing perceptions – including of critics – since he “was offered the position of head of lighting for the Melbourne Theatre Company at Russell Street Theatre... at the beginning of 1971.”

The history and comparisons between his experiences in Australia and overseas would give my students an excellent grounding, while his enthusiasm 45 years later must inspire them when he writes The play of light on surface continues to be a source of constant delight and almost physical pleasure for me, an inspiration for my work. When I get it right, even if only to my partial satisfaction, my lighting design springs from a desire to share with an audience this love of light: visibility, poetic density of meaning—but above all pure, succulent, sensuous visual pleasure.

This is not so much a how-to-do essay, but rather a how-to-be reading experience – genuinely enlightening, indeed.  Nigel knows his stuff from the “small resistance dimmer board on a perch position behind the proscenium” to the “current lighting control systems [which] allow extremely complicated manipulation of the transition from one lighting image to the next [where] we are now well in reach of that dream of a totally fluid light plot, one in which the light never ceases to shift over the entire course of the play.” 

Yet he makes it clear in his final chapter that technical skills must be integrated with personal and interpersonal skills, like working calmly and quickly under extreme time pressure, making both spontaneous and planned creative decisions, being able to quickly comprehend both the surface meaning of a text and its underlying subtext, having empathy for the demands faced by performers and being willing to adapt, having knowledge of the physics of light and how the eye works with a psychological understanding of the process of perception, as well as a broad understanding of
electricity and electronics.

It looks like he’s given me the assessment criteria for judging my lighting students’ progress.  But there’s still “Above all—you need a thick skin and a not-easily-bruised ego.”  Hmmm!  Just what we critics need, too?

Don’t miss Platform Paper No 49, especially (if you’re a critic) Chapter 5 – The Opinions!

ANCIENT RAIN - Paul Kelly and Camille O'Sullivan

Directed by Chris Drummond - Designed by Gaelle Mellis

Lighting design by Neil Simpson - Sound design by John O’Donnell

The Playhouse - Canberra Theatre Centre – 2^nd – 5^th November

Reviewed by Bill Stephens

Listening to a collection of songs inspired by the last 100 years of Irish poetry may not sound like the most riveting way to spend an evening. But that is to underestimate the creativity and passion of three extraordinary composers and performers in Paul Kelly, Camille O’Sullivan and Fergal Murray who have collaborated to produce a show that is truly remarkable.

Classic poems by Yeats, Heaney and Cavanagh, together with those of more recent poets as Eavan Boland, Paula Meehan, Jessica Traynor and Enda Wyley are woven into a mesmerising tapestry of songs and spoken word, brilliantly performed by Kelly and O’Sullivan, together with musicians, Feargal Murray, Paul Byrne, Dan Kelly and Sokol Koka.

Paul Kelly - Camille O' Sullivan 

Brilliantly directed by Chris Drummond, with stunning sound and lighting design, by John O’Donnell and Neil Simpson respectively, “Ancient Rain” is a constantly evolving visual and aural feast.

From the very first moments, when the curtain rises to reveal Camille O’Sullivan, in swirling mist, in a harsh white spotlight, reciting Seamus Heaney’s “Digging” in her clear beautifully modulated voice, the show immediately captivates.

Gradually the lights come up to reveal Paul Kelly standing in a semi-circle of chairs. Then Feargal Murray gently caressing the keys of a grand piano; guitarist Dan Kelly, percussionist Paul Byrne and cellist Sokol Koka, all arranged around the stage, as the poem merges into song.

For the rest of the performance, Kelly and O’Sullivan trade solos and duets, moving around the stage, constantly repositioning the chairs, themselves and the musicians, to create ever-changing stage pictures. No one refers to sheet music. Storm sounds, street sounds, or the haunting sound of solo cello; permeate the superb musical arrangements heightening the mood of the songs as they explore the gamut of human emotions.

All are consummate performers, in complete command of the material, which ranges from gentle reminiscence to raging songs of protest. Paul Kelly ‘s contained stage persona and masterful control of stillness is  perfectly complimented by Camille O’Sullivan’s bravura style, completely electrifying whether prowling the stage confronting her audience directly, or as a young girl praying to the statue of the Virgin Mary for help.

Towards the end of the evening, Kelly and O’Sullivan perform a poignant duologue, written by James Joyce, in which a woman confesses her first love. The sheer simplicity of the staging combined with the flawlessly delivered dialogue, proved a memorable and mesmerising conclusion to an unforgettable theatre experience. Whether or not Irish poetry is your thing, don’t miss this opportunity to experience this remarkable show.

This review also appears in AUSTRALIAN ARTS REVIEW.  www.artsreview.com.au

Elle

Review by Jane Freebury ©

This graphic and unsettling film from an arch provocateur known for Hollywood blockbusters is not without its director’s signature high-level sex and violence, despite the art-house credentials. Elle, a first in French language for Paul Verhoeven who brought us Basic Instinct and Robo Cop, is set in the affluent world of bankers and entrepreneurs, and it begins with a vicious rape.

On the basis of this opening scene and several others, recommendations for Elle have to be made with caveats. Some will loathe it. Yet it isn’t a film to write off on account of its violence (you may have to turn away) or for the very contentious space it throws open to discussion.

On the face of it, there is an older professional female executive who may be in some way undone or ‘set free’ by her experience of violent sex. There is also a dangerous proposition that ‘no’ can mean ‘yes’ and assent may not be necessary. Both are outrageous propositions, and while it might be reasonable to read Elle this way, it is more complex and layered than that. Elle is based on a popular French novel by the name of Oh… .

The rape victim, Michele (Isabelle Huppert), is the chief executive of a video games firm that she has herself built. It creates lurid, violent graphic fantasy material for gamers. The built-in contradiction that she peddles violent pornographic video and winds up being a victim of a hideous fantasy herself is obvious, but the film is hardly making a point of it.

Michele’s complex, layered character is inhabited by one of few actors suited to tackle her. It is no surprise that Huppert, always interesting and often minimalist and inscrutable, has often been cast in her long career as a cool customer, a difficult and complicated woman. She has been directed by the likes of Claude Chabrol, Michael Haneke, and Claire Denis and on one occasion by Paul Cox. She played a woman dealing with blindness for the late Australian director in Cactus (1986).

After the rapist leaves, Michele tidies up. She sweeps up the glasses and other items broken during the assault, has a soothing bath, orders sushi takeaway and goes to bed. Her facial bruising will be explained as a fall from her bicycle and she will not inform police. But it becomes clear that she intends to find her assailant. To then do what? Does she even know?

It is revealed that Michele is not a popular boss, more likely actively disliked, but business is thriving. For her young male employees, imagining grotesque rape fantasies and stripping young women for motion capture imagery is a daily function in their line of work. Behind closed blinds in her office, Michele conducts an affair of her own with a married colleague.

At the same time, Michele expresses withering disapproval of her ex-husband’s new young girlfriend, her aging mother’s gigolo and of her son’s vituperative, pregnant girlfriend. Why is everyone in her life so hopeless? She may have a point, and we may laugh at their expense, but she is way out of line, and controlling. It becomes increasingly clear that self-control has been her means to survival.

The eventual revelation of a ghastly past that she has had to leave behind provides more than enough explanation as to why Michele won’t inform the police and invite public scrutiny into her life again. Given the appalling media exposure victims can receive after violent assaults, her bleak past is unnecessary backstory. It doesn’t seem unreasonable that she decides to go about things her own way, and won’t accept the role of victim.

For Michele, it is all about control over her privacy. Even where it might mean risking more violent intrusion into her personal space. It is a tribute to the contrarian intelligence behind the film, that Elle is able to offer its controversial agenda.

Circumstances have brought the esteemed Huppert and controversial director Verhoeven together to explore how a successful self-made businesswoman, sexy and single by choice, can opt for full control and risk the consequences. It’s a provocation that suits them both.

3.5 Stars

Also published at www.janefreeburywriter.com.au

 

THE STUDENT - RUSSIAN FILM FESTIVAL 2016

Directed and written by Kirill Serebrennikov

Adapted from the play “Martyr” by Marius von Mayenburg.

Russian Resurrection Film Festival 2016

Manuka Cinemas 1 - 6 November 2016

Reviewed by Len Power 1 November 2016

According to the Russian Film Festival program booklet, 2016 has been declared the Year of Russian Cinema by the President of the Russian Federation, Vladimir Putin.  “The purpose of this dedication to ‘the most important of the arts’ is drawing attention to national cinema, its problems and achievements.”

Kirill Serebrennikov’s film, “The Student”, made a big splash and divided audiences at this year’s Cannes Film Festival.  This controversial film was a good choice to open this year’s Russian Film Festival at the Manuka Cinemas.

Written and directed by Serebrennikov, it tells the story of a student, Veniamin, in the midst of a spiritual crisis.  His own interpretation of the Bible results in clashes at school with other students and his teachers.  His mother, the teaching staff or a priest are unable to cope with the situation and only his biology teacher is prepared to challenge him on his own level.

Pyotr Skvortsov as Veniamin, the student

The central performance by Pyotr Skvortsov as Veniamin is impressive.  Is he really sincere about his religious beliefs or is there a certain amount of boundary-testing involved?  Victoria Isakova as the biology teacher walks away with the acting honours, presenting a very real character you can relate to.  Julia Aug also gives a believable performance as his bewildered, overbearing non-believer of a mother.  The performances of others in the cast are hampered by a script determined to push a particular point of view regardless of reality.  In particular, some of the actions of the school’s Principal seem archaic and unconvincing.

Cinematographer, Vladislav Opelyants, uses the wide screen very well with excellent compositions and production designer Ekaterina Scheglova provides a superb nightmare of an apartment where Veniamin and his mother live.  The director obtains strong, committed performances from his cast and, apart from some over melodramatic moments towards the end, creates a disturbing vision of the effects of religious mania on a community.  It’s an impressive, though uncomfortable, film to watch.

The festival continues in Canberra at the Manuka Cinemas until 6 November.  There is quite a range of films showing to suit all tastes.

Len Power’s reviews are also broadcast on Artsound FM 92.7 ‘Artcetera’ program on Saturdays from 9.00am.

THE VICAR OF DIBLEY

Adapted by Ian Gower and Paul Carpenter from the TV series written by Richard Curtis and Paul Mayhew-Archer

Directed by Jon Elphick

Tempo Theatre Inc.

Theatre@bcs, Belconnen to November 5.

Reviewed by Len Power 28 October 2016

Tempo Theatre’s production of “The Vicar Of Dibley” is a stage adaptation of the popular TV series that ran from 1994 to 2007.  It is set in a fictional small Oxfordshire village called Dibley, which is assigned a female vicar following the 1992 changes in the Church of England that permitted the ordination of women.  The reaction of the staid members of the church committee and the rustic townsfolk forms the basis of the comic situations that unfold.

Adaptations of TV shows for the stage like this one give audiences exactly what they want – an evening with characters they’ve grown to love over a long period.  Jon Elphick has directed the show in a straight forward manner, keeping the pace up and allowing his cast every opportunity to present a vivid set of amusing characters.

Karyn Tisdell dominates the show as the vicar, Geraldine Granger, capturing the warmth and humour of this woman very well.  Kim Wilson is very funny as the pedantic committee chairman, David Horton, and is matched every step of the way by Tony Cheshire as the even more pedantic Secretary, Frank Pickle.

Tessa Franceschini and Karyn Tisdell

Marian Fitzgerald gives a delightfully wicked performance as Mrs Letitia Cropley with her horrific recipes and deftly plays the church organ interludes as well.  Jason Morton’s comic timing gets him some of the biggest laughs as the coarse-mannered farmer with marriage on his mind, Owen Nesbitt, and Jon Elphick is terrific as the dithering Jim Trott.

As the young lovers, Sam Kentish gives a nicely comic performance as the inexperienced lover and Tessa Franceschini almost steals the show with her excellent performance as the dim-witted, Alice.  Cheryl Browne and Garry Robinson give good support in two very small roles.

Back row: left to right – Jason Morton, Tessa Franceschini, Karyn Tisdell, Marian Fitzgerald, Jon Elphick  Seated: Sam Kentish, Kim Wilson, Tony Cheshire

The audience at the opening night gave the cast a rousing reception.  I have never seen the TV series but, with a bit of eaves-dropping at interval, I ascertained that audience members felt that the cast were successfully capturing the essence of the TV characters and situations.

Whether you know the TV series or not, this is an enjoyable show with some great laughs.

Photographs by Melita Caulfield

Len Power’s reviews are also broadcast on Artsound FM 92.7 ‘Artcetera’ program from 9.00am on Saturdays.