A Feast For All The Senses: Darling and Edge

The story begins

Darling and Edge are fantastic immersive designers, and have been collaborating with us for ages. When they came to us with an idea for their first self-produced immersive experience, ‘Beauty and the Feast’, we were delighted, and hungry to get going! Darling and Edge wanted to make this event far more than just an adult pantomime, they wanted to make it an unforgettable immersive experience. They needed a lighting set-up to keep their audience immersed, without going over budget. The venue they’d chosen, ‘The Vaults’, gets seriously hot, especially during high energy shows. We needed to keep the lighting cool, while their players cranked up the heat.

Down the rabbit hole…

The show took place in two different spaces, the first being a theatre set. Actors performed both on stage and in a raked seating area. We created a dynamic design to keep the action well-lit and beautifully visible from every audience angle. Performances like this are designed to be a 360 degree assault on the senses, so we used light to direct the audience’s attention and make the story the focus.

In the second space, the dining hall, the action took place both on stages surrounding the audience and actually among the crowd at dining tables. 30 chandeliers hung above the tables to set the scene, but they also operated as effect lighting, synchronised to heighten the action and music.

We used LEDs to keep the heat down, while programming everything to run either to timecode or manually (or both!), which made things easier for the minimal technical staff on site and kept costs down for Darling and Edge.

A beautiful feast for the senses

We provided a simple, cost-effective lighting design that created an immersive experience for their audience. The audience response to Beauty and the Feast was hugely positive. We’re chuffed that our lighting design met Darling and Edge’s brief, and we were privileged to be a part of helping to make ‘Beauty and the Feast’ such a triumph for them.

Our events are only made possible because of the team at Bailes and Light. The creativity exhibited at Bailes and Light is unprecedented in their field. Their ability to work to new changes and artistically problem solve within the means and limitations of each project is second to none. Their relentless enthusiasm, skill and humour makes them an absolute pleasure to work with and we would recommend them, glowingly, to anyone (as long as you agree give them back!).

Elise Edge,
Darling and Edge Ltd