DRALION BRAKES RIGGING RECORD
ANOTHER SOLD-OUT RESIDENCY AT THE ROYAL ALBERT HALL FOR CIRQUE DU SOLEIL & SUMMIT STEEL
With a total of 132 points, Summit Steel's installation of Cirque du Soleil's ambitious Dralion show at London's Royal Albert Hall broke the record for the most number of rigging points ever installed into the venue. The previous record was also set by Summit Steel - for installation of the same show last year. The rigging process also had to be completed in and even shorter time slot of two days less than last year!
Summit continued its working relationship with Cirque du Soleil, with this, the fifth Cirque production it has installed into the RAH for Dralion's fully sold-out five week residency.
The show is the fusion of ancient Chinese circus traditions with the Cirque's daring exploration of avant-garde performance. The name itself is an amalgam of the 'Dragon' of the east and the 'Lion' of the west.
Summit's Chris Walker started work on the project in September 2004, along with a team of people including Cirque's rigging project manager Ewen Seagel, Marc-AndrŽ Leclerc, technical manager for the Dralion transfer to the RAH, Adrian Bray, the RAH's technical show manager, Gez Edwards-Web, the venue's TSM responsible for the Dralion rigging, and Bob Stagg from consulting structural engineers Alan Conisbee Associates.
All Cirque du Soleil's touring shows are designed around its own tent structures. Summit mimicked these support/anchoring structures and devices within the RAH by establishing an overall rigging infrastructure. This enabled Cirque's complex show - a multi-colour collage of high octane acrobatics, split second timing and theatrical drama - to operate as 'normal'.
Summit's starting point for Dralion was the installation of a number of 'anchor' points, using custom brackets, trusses and soldier beams. These were attached with extreme care to the RAH's building fabric. The venue is Grade 1 listed, so this is a particularly delicate task to achieve without damage. The anchoring structures were then 'proof loaded' to ensure that no damage would occur to the building once the show loads were applied.
Summit also carried out a pre-rig to relocate over 50 house hoists into the correct positions for the show in addition to suspending Cirque's custom 'cupola' grid, which emulates the top of its tent, and sits above its circular technical grid.
The lack of backstage space and the weight of the on-stage scenic wall necessitated a flown mezzanine above the stage, complete with decking and handrails for dimmer and amp positions. The mezzanine also provided a position for ladder access up to a 20 metre long flown catwalk, constructed from 52cm Thomas Supertruss, also fully decked and hand-railed. This was used to access Cirque's central circular technical grid and for cable management. The catwalk connected to the technical grid via several custom fabricated sections.
Around the Cirque's technical grid and the 'anneau' circular grid, Summit supplied a horseshoe shaped truss with custom-fabricated corners so it followed the venue's 'B' ring of roof points and provided lighting positions and cable management.
Other suppliers included Britannia Row Productions (audio), Neg Earth (lighting), and Media Structures, who built several bespoke scaffolding constructions.