Es Devlin is best known for her scenery and costume design work in opera, but she has recently lent her talents to the Pet Shop Boys for their Pandemonium tour of North America. Devlin, who previously worked with the Pet Shop Boys on their musical Closer to Heaven in 2000, wore four hats on the current tour as creative director, set designer, video designer (along with Sam Pattinson) and costume designer (along with Jeffrey Bryant).
The lighting designer for the tour is Rob Sinclair, whose recent work also includes Keane and Human League.
Rob Sinclair: “I went into lighting this show very much as a musical rather than a rock show and tried to help tell the stories without making it all about me. We’re all about video and I had to work to make sure that the projection always popped out over the lighting whilst not leaving the cast in the dark.
“I used a Jands Vista lighting console to program the lights and both Bronia Housman (Devlin’s associate) and I shared Vectorworks drawings.
“The video runs from a Catalyst media server and takes its cues directly from timecode. The Catalyst was programmed by Simon Pugsley.
“I decided to go with the (Martin) MAC 700 Profiles and Washes because they’re small, very reliable and Upstaging let me have them cheap.
“The set, an ever-changing big white set of cubes, along with an energetic and mobile cast, could have turned into a nightmare. But things seemed to work from the start although all the floor lights went home on the first day of rehearsals after cardboard boxes started falling onto them!
“I’ve really enjoyed both the creative process and the tour. The band and Es have been fabulous to work with.”
Crew
Creative Director/Set Design: Es Devlin
Lighting Designer: Rob Sinclair
Video Design: Es Devlin, Sam
Pattinson (OneDotZero)
Costume Design: Es Devlin, Jeffrey Bryant
Production Manager: Joe Sanchez
Tour Manager: Andrew Crookston
Lighting Supplier: Upstaging and Neg Earth
Lighting Crew: JR Harris, Wade Cotton
Video Supplier: Creative Technology
Gear
Lighting Console: Jands Vista
15 Martin MAC 700 Profile fixtures
19 Martin MAC 700 Wash fixtures
14 Martin Atomic 3000 strobes
12 GLP Impression LED fixtures
3 6-Way PAR Bars w/ MFL lamps
3 2K Fresnels
6 MR16 Birdies
4 Element Labs VersaTiles (Neg Earth)
1 Barco FLM 20 video projector
