Time Out – Critics’ Choice

Living Unknown Soldier used the following (all on loan from White Light, except for the lighting desk supplied by ETC, and the house lights we bought):

Stage Light:
3 x GLP Impression LED Head Wash Light (with wide angle lens)
17 x Chroma-Q Color Blocks (DB4 LED Colour Changer)
12 x 21 degree 50w Birdies
12 x 50 degree 375w Source 4s
6 x Robert Julliat Dimmable fluorescents

House Lights:
6 x Megamann Dimmerable ES-cap 11w bulbs

Dimmers:
3 x Anytronics S194 6 way dimmer rack
1 x Robert Julliat Dimmer (for fluorescents)

Control:
ETC Smart Fade ML

Sponsors: ETC, Pixel Range, White Light

Jazz Wood – Crew
www.jazzwood.co.uk

Hadyn Williams -Crew

LED Lighting (Fig.1)

LED Lighting (Fig.2)

 Florescent tube (Fig.3)

Photo Credit: Jazz Wood.

To begin with I was deeply sceptical about the whole project. I am not an environmentalist. I would rather hasten the planet’s demise than save it. I did this for artistic reasons rather than social ones. I hoped that by limiting the production we might do things more simply, more efficiently.

But ‘limit’ is the wrong word. What actually happened was that by ‘going green’ we opened up a plethora of possibilities.

I’ve described below how the limitations effected the artistic process:

Limiting computer use – Brilliant because I wrote onto paper which forced me to be fluent rather than deleting and editing all the time which is what happens when writing on a computer.

Limiting phone use – A blessing for everyone.

Travel by public transport – I can’t drive anything so it is the only way I can get around so it was never an inconvenience.

Monitoring of water use – What was artistically beneficial was that I think we took less breaks in rehearsal as a consequence.

Use of sustainable materials – This was the hardest one. Anything sustainable is more expensive. Paint, in particular, was extortionate and any scheme to subsidise that would probably be a good thing. Also a lot of people are still relatively ignorant about what products of theirs might be sustainable. One Simple8er had an amusing conversation with a wood merchant about the certification of their wood. They didn’t actually know what the certificate meant. I think finding homes for things after the show finishes is perhaps the most important thing to do. Our sandbags are going to be recycled. Our costumes will be used for other shows. Our flats, I think, are going to a school….

Use of low energy lighting – This lighting is great and certainly has a future for theatrical use. The criticism levelled at it by designers is that it bleaches out actors’ faces (sometimes a good thing). This is not entirely true. The technology is now advancing rapidly and becoming far less atonal. Also there are some productions where this effect would be particularly suitable. The National have got a German, experimental piece of ‘installation’ theatre on at the moment called The Hour We Knew Nothing of Each Other. LED lighting would be suitable for that material. I think the big theatres should be persuaded to identify what productions would be suitable to try it out on and then they might be pleasantly surprised.

For our purposes it was great because the lights offer more colour variety than traditional candescents so, with fewer fixtures, one can do more. They are smaller too, which, in a theatre with a low roof, helps aesthetically. The technology is improving and there are things that need ironing out – for example the board the lights run off is in principle brilliant (it has a colour select function and a very clever memory) but it is new technology (before this play it had never been used before) and so needs practice.

Use of the hydrogen fuel cell – By limiting the amount of energy you use you force yourself to use less light less often. This can only be a good thing. It is why Simple 8 were keen to take part in the experiment because we like to get the actors to evoke the situation and atmosphere rather than the lights or any other effect.

The problem I suppose with the hydrogen cell and with the low energy lighting is cost. But I imagine that to be the hurdle with all effort at sustainability and I have no solution other than to encourage change of habit. I hope that The Living Unknown Soldier and the example of the Arcola has helped, in some small way, to do that.

Sebastian Armesto

Strawberry Vale Productions presents Simple8’s

The Living Unknown Soldier
Based on Le Soldat Inconnu Vivant by Jean-Yves le Naour

London’s Premiere Sustainable Theatre Production

On the 90th anniversary of the end of First World War, ‘brave young company’ (Evening Standard) Simple8 present their second production: The Living Unknown Soldier. It follows their 2006 critically acclaimed sell-out success Les Enfants Du
Paradis (Arcola).

France, 1918. The Great War has ended. Thousands are missing.
Relatives are desperately seeking their loved ones as men return from
the front. A soldier is found wandering a station platform. With no
knowledge of his identity, or the country he has been defending, he is
diagnosed with amnesia and committed to an asylum. Saved from
death but exiled from life he faces a no-man’s land once more.

As news spreads across the country, families flock to him in search of
the fathers, brothers, husbands and sons who may never come home.
This one man becomes a symbol for a generation ripped apart by war
- a living unknown soldier.

Artistic Director Mehmet Ergen said: “I am absolutely delighted to welcome back Simple8 and Strawberry Vale Productions after the total success of Les Enfants du Paradis, the sell-out Notes from Underground by Dostoyevsky and our first West End transfer, Mojo Mickybo by Owen McCafferty.”

The Living Unknown Soldier is based on Le Soldat Inconnu Vivant by Jean-Yves Le Naour. It explores the fine line between memory and imagination and serves as a timely reminder of the fallout from war. Created using Le Naour’s book, the original source material and the company’s own imagination the result is a war story, a ghost
story, an absurd comedy and a chilling tragedy where the ensemble will rise from a no-man’s land of mud to imagine and remember the life of the living unknown soldier.

Summer 2007 saw the launch of Arcola Energy – a bold and unique venture to make Arcola the world’s first ‘carbon neutral’ theatre. To launch Phase II, Arcola Theatre is joining forces with us to try to create London’s premiere ecologically sustainable theatre production. It links directly to the Sustainable Theatre Initiative “Greening London Theatre”, launched in October by London Mayor Ken Livingstone. Our ambition is to set a precedent and promote ecological and ethical standards in the industry.

PRESS NIGHT 15 FEBRUARY 2008.