Nominated for ‘Best Ballet’ at the Helpmann Awards and winner of three Performing Arts WA Awards, the West Australian Ballet’s production of Dracula has just finished a sold-out season at Perth’s His Majesty’s Theatre.
With looming, gothic sets and rich, detailed costumes, Krzysztof Pastor’s exquisitely thrilling neo-classical work was accompanied by WASO’s powerful live performance of the magnificent score.
Since restrictions began to be lifted in WA in early June, the West Australian Ballet’s world-class dancers resumed full contact training, delivered a workshop-style performance in front of a limited audience, and have been preparing for the planned award-winning season of Dracula.
The brief given to lighting designer Jon Buswell was fairly simple: to portray a version of Dracula which is theatrical and convincing without being over the top. This is a horror story with a very famous character but most people don’t know the story really. It was important for us to deliver the story as faithfully as possible but with enough pathos that it kept you engaged.
“Anyone who has read the book will know that it goes into very fine detail – it’s an in-depth read that’s for sure,” commented Jon. “Krzysztof was very clear from the beginning on how the story would be told. He has a distinct style of choreography which mixes classical and contemporary movement. He used this to great effect portraying emotions – sometimes it’s jarring – but that’s the point, you are never able to just sit back and watch – there’s always something to focus on and react to. Phil Daniels and Charles Cusick Smith (set and costume designers) were also highly adept in providing the atmosphere to make really effective environments. For my part, I worked to produce enough light and shadow to deliver this, changing from Dracula’s castle to Hampstead Heath, to the Asylum whilst trying to maintain a high contrast dramatic design.”
Jon added that the music also really helped set the tone, it’s mainly based on the music from the film, with some other works added from the same composer. It’s eerie stuff.
The biggest challenge for Jon was lighting dark enough that you were able to easily see what was going on but at the same time evoking a sense of a dark foreboding place. That’s always the challenge in any kind of theatre: too dark and you lose the story, too light and you lose the mystery. There were a lot of cues for a ballet which kept unnecessary light controlled for the most part.
“This show was originally done in 2018, so with the COVID restrictions, I wasn’t able to attend,” continued Jon. “I am very lucky to have Mick Rippon handle the re-light on my behalf. Mick worked with me on the 2018 premiere and took copious notes and archived the heck out of the show. We were in regular touch throughout the restaging and I know that it will have come back as well if not better than the first time around. WA Ballet also is a great company, capable and confident. It’s not an accident that they managed to stage the first major dance work in Australia after COVID stopped everything.”
His Majesty’s Theatre has an impeccably maintained set of Martin MAC2000 Performances, a couple of Vari-lite VL3500s and four ETC Revolutions that Jon put to work. He placed the ETC Revolutions and VLs on an advance truss to do specific special work (especially in the scene drop scenes) whilst the MACs were rigged throughout the overheads. On top of this, he used WAB’s twelve Robe Spiider wash lights throughout the rig and on the floor in the downstage corners of the stage.
“We also purchased a ‘Tiny Mover’, a very small LED wash light that sat just below the front edge of the stage to be used as a positionable uplight,” said Jon. “It was one of those movers from China that looks bigger in the pictures than it really is! Happily, it turned up to be about the side of a couple of Rubik’s cubes. We also hired an Ayrton K25 LED wash light which provided the big swathes of light when needed or an HMI style backlight on demand.”
Jon’s favourite lighting moment of the production is set in the crypt. Jonathon Harker has just been rescued from certain death (or becoming a vampire), they head up the stairs and Dracula follows. At that moment he is caught in a beam of sunlight. Bam! That’s it.
Photos: Bradbury Photography
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