Double take for XL Video on ‘Jekyll & Hyde’

XL Video UK supplied video projection to Tim Saward’s lively and innovative production of “Dr Jekyll & Mr Hyde - Make Mine a Double”, staged at theBROADWAY, Barking, by the Leytonstone-based Woodhouse Players.
The show was produced and directed by Saward, and the script written by co-producer Thos Ribbits. Their version of the Robert Louis Stevenson classic is a high energy part-panto-part-melodrama Gothic style escapade, set in a Victorian hospital on the verge of bankruptcy … and witnessing some strange goings on!
A large onstage projection area utilising multiple openings and traps was used to great effect to create all the scenic backdrops and for various animated effects and digital props
Saward had produced a version of ‘Dracula’ in 2003 which had explored the advantages of video to some extent. When Jekyll & Hyde started evolving, he decided to go with a fully digital backdrop from the outset, “It’s hugely flexible, highly visual, extremely cost-effective as well as being exciting and contemporary,” he said.
For hardware, he was recommended to XL’s arts and theatre specialist Malcolm Mellows, who said: “This must be one of the highest quality and thoughtful visual realisations I have seen and all used to great effect. It is an excellent and creative production that proves the point I often make: that video can be of great benefit to smaller theatre shows where there simply isn’t the space to use elaborate sets and drops. XL Video’s experienced and understanding theatre department is truly available to serve all types and sizes of performing arts productions.”
The projector supplied was a Barco SLM G8. Initially Saward had envisioned back projecting, but theBROADWAY lacked the space. There was also only a 5 metre throw distance from the front and they needed a 5 metre tall image, so Mellows calculated a front projection solution that filled the screen using Barco’s 0.8 : 1 ratio lens, and keystone correction software.
(GB)