Iris Brunette

Following successful performances in Edinburgh, as part of the British Council Showcase, Melanie Wilson is touring Iris Brunette this Autumn. Iris was one of my favourite projects of last year, and it was a pleasure to revisit it this summer.

Whilst at the festival, Mel got some great reviews, including this from Joyce McMillan of The Scotsman:

"[She is] a remarkable poet in word and sound, going straight to the heart of that longing for a last, precious touch of intimacy." * * * *

And here's what Kultureflash had to say about my lighting design:

"We find we've been effortlessly woven into the thread of this post-apocalyptic patchwork, appearing and disappearing from view thanks to Ben Pacey's brilliantly conceived lighting."

It's a dark, gentle and extraordinary performance, for only 20 people at a time. I can't recommend it enough, really. The full tour dates are on the Fuel site, here.

Water Music

I'm currently working with Lewis Gibson and VJ Mox on Water Music for the Greenwich and Docklands Festival. We've been on site at the National Maritime Museum in Greenwich all week. It's a beautiful site, we've got a great crew, and the weather's been good so far..! But being outside, we have to wait until the sun sets before we can do much with the lighting, so there's been a couple of quite late nights this week.

The photo is fresh from the early hours of this morning, during our final focus session before tonight's first performance.

The Moon The Moon

A nice quote from Culture Wars, in their review of The Moon The Moon.

"The figure of the moon is a ghostly pervasive omnipresence, who[...] thanks to Ben Pacey’s superbly dexterous lighting, fades between unearthly half-presence and concrete reality."

Working on the Moon...

I'm busy working on the moon at the moment.

No, not that one, this one.

It's all looking very exciting, and the theatre we're working in, Curve, in Leicester is quite amazing. More on this soon...

Mixtape

Just before Christmas I was collaborating, devising and designing with Jon Spooner on the first part of Mixtape which Unlimited Theatre is creating and curating. Between us we made probably the most beautiful 3 minute 20 second show I've ever been part of... it took a bit longer than three minutes to make it, but great to be able to dream, then make, then present all within the space of a few days.

Now the new year has been and gone, I'm looking forward to another collaboration with Unlimited, this time as lighting designer of their new touring show The Moon, The Moon...

The Woods Project

Last week I was working with Jane Packman and team, on The Woods Project, an atmospheric outdoor promenade performance, which I've been collaborating on as both writer and lighting designer. The performance takes the audience into the woods at nightfall, where they experience a fragmented narrative of destruction and regeneration.

As a lighting designer, it's amazing to be able to work in such a richly textured natural environment. The evening twilight, the limited audience capacity, and the woodland location allow me to work very low-fi and light-weight; getting beautiful results from very little equipment... of which there's not a trace left behind afterwards.

A Small Town Anywhere

Back in September I spent a very productive week at the National Theatre Studio, collaborating again with Coney, on a project entitled A Small Town Anywhere.

It's always great to spend time at the studio, and espcially good to be in the refurbished building for the first time, looking out onto the bustle of The Cut. We made some good progress on the project, and all being well it'll gestate from this 'wall-of-post-its' into a full production next year...