This spring Summerfolk ran at the Olivier, Maxim Gorky's 1904 play, depicting a lazy summer of picnics and walks at a dacha in the Russian countryside as the bourgeousie respond to the increasing social changes around them. Directed by Robert Hastie with sound design by Alexandra Faye Braithwaite and set and costumes by Peter McKintosh, the production has lighting by Paul Pyant. The RADA-trained lighting designer has worked at the National Theatre on many productions, including The Wind in the Willows, A Streetcar Named Desire, and Charlie And The Chocolate Factory, for which he won an Olivier Award in 2014. He is also know for his work on Broadway (which has garnered him multiple Tony Award nominations), in the West End, and at some of the world's most famous opera houses.
Pyant shared his thoughts on designing the play, for which he won a Profile Award this summer, and his light plot from the production at London's National Theatre.
The Team
Initially, the offer for the project came from the director, Rob Hastie, who has recently been appointed deputy artistic director of the National Theatre. We had worked together before on productions when he was based at the Donmar Warehouse. I had also worked extensively with the scenic designer Peter McKintosh so I we were an established team. However, neither of them had worked in the Olivier Theatre but in my time I have had considerable experience lighting productions there, starting with The Wind in the Willows for Nicholas Hytner in 1990 through to King Lear with Sam Mendes in 2014. It was a pleasant surprise at my great age to be asked back to light something there again!
The Theatre
The Olivier Theatre is currently undergoing a much needed program of upgrading its elderly bespoke infrastructure while the building remains in daily use. This is a major project and has involved the phased removal of the old and installation of new technical elements. During the production period of Summerfolk a very limited number of the fly tower hoists were available to us as this work progressed. In addition, the grid height was compromised by a platform built below grid height so contractors could get access. A lot of the planning process for the production had to take this work into consideration.
The Rig & Fixtures
One of the chief logistic hurdles was the fact the set was designed to be on an angle and set in a slightly awkward place for lighting on the Olivier stage. This was dictated by the fact that in acts three and four various sections of the floor
surrounding the main performance area were removed in the interval to reveal that the set was standing in a big expanse of water at various depths.....in one section it was deep enough to fully submerge an actor. Because various large elements of the set had to fly in scene changes at an angle it almost completely cancelled out the standard, over-stage lighting rig.
The Olivier has a well equipped standard lighting rig therefore the lighting hire budget low but the National Theatre does hold a stock of spare equipment in-house from which you can negotiate items if you need. The National Theatre at present does not perform in repertoire so each production occupies the theatre for a straight run of performances. This means there is no logistic nightmare of sharing the space with another show that requires regular changeovers. All the above gave me the practical parameters when designing the rig.
Ultimately, I drew a large L-shaped truss that reflected the shape of the set and gave me good angles both into the basic set and also the upstage areas utilized by the the production in acts three and four and redeployed all the displaced basic rig equipment along its length. I used a mixture of MAC Ultras and Performances. In addition, GLP X5s were placed very high on the fly tower giving us a good, steep angle through the trees. All in all it worked remarkably well.
Laura Choules, the designated in-house programmer for the production, and I spent a little time looking at these positions in the pre-vis suite and determined things like trim heights etc but beyond that we did not really use the pre-vis for building lighting states.
I did not change the basic FOH or side positions much although I added four Lustrs on the auditorium right “Farncombe/Poet” position with window gobos to give me a key light into the set for the first act.
The Arc of the Play
The play was written in 1904 by Maxim Gorky as a response to Checkov's The Cherry Orchard, at the end of which the old estate is sold off and the trees make way for the new middle-class to spend summer in their dachas—hence "summer folk". They are increasingly populated by the feckless nouveau riche who despoil the natural environment and laze the summer away with no purpose or responsibility. It charts the build up of the unrest that resulted in the 1917 revolution.
The first act is set within the Bassov house and introduces the audience to all the characters of the play and is set in the late evening. The characters comment on the fact that its dark inside and the fact that although it is wired for electricity, nothing works. This is a metaphor for Russia as a country, which was increasingly dysfunctional in the pre-revolutionary time.
Oil lamps are called for, for which we used four radio controlled prop oil lamps to give us points of focus. From them we increasing built the light in the room so we could see each of the characters clearly as they are introduced.
The Forest surrounding was lit in a way to suggest the oppressively hot, airless night encroaching outside. You become aware of the indistinct outlines of the “underclass” including a night watchmen providing an uncertain threat in the shadows.
Act two is a very bright, hot summer afternoon on the terrace of the house and by the end of the act we are in the
early stages of sunset. We achieved the scene change very efficiently, scenic elements flying out and the entire cast choreographed moving and setting the required furniture with moving backlight linear gobos playing against each other. The effect reminded me of a scene from something like Fritz Langs' Metropolis.
During the interval, floor panels are lifted to reveal water surrounding the main deck and at the beginning of the act the entire company of actors are revealed enjoying a picnic in the trees. This is also a very sultry humid day which we evoked with haze and light streaming through the trees. The final moments of this are beautifully sad with just two characters alone in this vast space in a long shadow sunset.
Act four opens with a supper table is being laid on the terrace, last seen in act two, but it is early evening, cooler, and we darken the surrounding forest until it is fully night and slightly foreboding. The final image of the production is a sudden burst of gunfire where we light the full company in a long line that reaches far upstage, creating a tableau which suggests things do not bode well for most of them.
It's an epic piece on a epic scale.
The first two acts were played against a background of a tall green wall....cutting
off the upstage section of the deep stage. At the start of Act 3 this wall flew
out to reveal the full depth of the Olivier stage...........