Peter England took a “less is more” approach for the video imagery used for King Kong on Broadway, “darkening, abstracting and distancing the content so when it is used it sits where it belongs — in the background,” he says. When Ann, Carl and the ship’s crew arrive on Skull Island, “the scenic vines are mapped with front projection and are repeated on the LED screen to increase the sense of depth.” The moment when the stage gets black and only Kong’s eyes and mouth are visible is “when the real depth kicks in and the fearful imagination of the unknown takes over. Mystery is provocative,” England says. “The aim here was to offer more sophisticated ideas about nature and the entire indigenous environment as a whole living entity that is mysterious, precious, sentient and vulnerable – ideas perhaps more pertinent to an audience in 2018 than archaic stereotypes” of the old King Kong movies, portraying first-world explorers confronting Skull Island natives for the first time.
-Bryan Reesman, from “Inside Theater,” PLSN, Jan. 2019, page 32
