Welcome to the introductory notes for Lighthouse.

Part gig, part light show, part rave, Lighthouse is a euphoric new live performance from musician & composer Jez Colborne. The show blends original music with projection, film, sculpture & movement.

The entire set has a steam punk, rusty and salvaged feel. A large, dark wooden structure, loosely resembling the top of a broken down lighthouse, dominates the space. A large projection screen curves behind the lighthouse from wall to wall. At the start of the performance, the screen is empty, but during the show, it’s illuminated by animation and video.

At the heart of the raised wooden structure, is a large octagonal platform with worn wooden floorboards. On top of this platform, is the lighthouse keeper’s base, we’ll call him The Wickie. The Wickie’s base resembles a cross section of an octagonal lighthouse and is made up of open vertical and horizontal beams, creating a skeletal design, through which we find the projection screen. The shelter’s been exposed to the elements and is rusty. On the right of the shelter, there’s a fixed ladder, leading to the mesh roof of The Wickie’s base. Inside is a solitary wooden chair, a wireless radio on a wooden plinth, and an old wooden trunk, acting as a table for 3 mugs and a spoon. Across the front of the Wickie’s base, is a gauze curtain. This acts as a projection screen throughout the performance.

There are various animations projected onto this gauze and the screen behind the lighthouse. Sometimes they are used to show the passing of time, with layered images of the Wickie moving around his base and at other times they help set the scene of a gloomy coastline, battered by a storm. Other times they are more colourful and vivid, which you’ll hear more about shortly.

Back to the lighthouse structure, there are three walkways that protrude from the Wickie’s base in the centre back. If you imagine a clock face, they are at 4, 6 and 8pm. At the end of each walkway are three smaller octagonal platforms. Standing on each platform is a structure, sculptural in form, and archaic in design. Each sculpture, which all stand at around 6 feet tall or about as tall as an average fridge freezer, represents part of the lighthouse for the Wickie to operate: at 4pm there is a fog siren, at 6pm a lamp and at 8pm the engine room. These elements of the Lighthouse have clearly been made from flotsam and jetsam and are brought to life during the show.

Let me tell you a little bit more about these upcycled sculptures:

The fog siren has a square metal base, from which protrudes a tall metal ladder at about a 45 degree angle. At the top of the ladder, are a cluster of five brass horns and to the side of the horns is a wheel pulley system. At the bottom, the pulley attaches to a cut off section of a rusted red bike. The Wickie hand cranks the bike’s pedal, in order to turn the wheel, driving the pulley which sounds the horns. It makes a loud klaxon noise, and the first time the Wickie operates the siren he says ‘are you ready?’ before it loudly makes its first call. It’s very loud.

The lamp has a hexagonal base made of vertical wooden beams, and inside is a black, industrial light. The light points upwards through a hole in the base’s lid, and into a perspex cylinder. Here, a metal frame supports two mirrors, which reflect the light from below and project it out through two lenses, which focus the light into intense beams. The cylinder spins, emitting powerful beams that circle the space just like a lighthouse. At the start the light is white but through the show it begins to emit colour. The Wickie operates the lamp by pressing a button on the lid of the wooden base.

The engine room is a tall but narrow metal kinetic sculpture. Supported by a ‘H’ shaped base, the rectangular rusted frame acts as the backbone. At the top of the frame, mounted on two horizontal parallel bars, are small bicycle gears and from these, emerge bicycle chains. The Wickie turns a handle on one of the bicycle gears, which raises a blue and white buoy connected to the chains. When the buoy drops, it causes a large bicycle wheel, attached to the top of the metal frame to spin, powering up the lighthouse.

At the opposite end of the space is another part of the lighthouse. It is a raised, weathered metal structure, with a wooden panelled floor. The structure is reminiscent of the observation deck of a lighthouse, with simple wooden railings. Later in the show this transforms to a DJ booth, where we are transported to a psychedelic rave lightshow where the Wickie plays synths and keyboards. In this scene, there are animations projected which are vivid and kaleidoscopic. Multicoloured shapes shift and move, as if they are dancing, layered over images of lighthouses and rave dancers. Animations of seagulls are layered with geometric shapes and at other times, coloured squiggly lines bounce with the bass of the music like sound waves. The feel is intense and dramatic. There is an animation which tells the story of the Lighthouse’s fight with the threat of becoming automated. It depicts gloomy and stormy skies, where the lighthouse, hit by lightning is transformed into a robot, with its rays of light becoming robotic laser beams, shooting out from its face into the sea. In the rave scene, you might be handed a luminescent glow stick to help you get into party mode!

Before the show starts, our set is empty, other than the Wickie who sits patiently in his base.
The Wickie is played by Jez Colborne (pronouns he/him). He is a 54 year old white man, with a short beard, glasses and grey hair. He wears a yellow sou’wester hat and a yellow oilskin coat. He has a slim build and moves slowly and inquisitively, carefully taking in his surroundings.

Later, 3 mysterious visitors arrive at the Lighthouse carrying powerful torches which pierce the foggy air. There’s a storm where the lightning flashes brightly.

The first visitor is played by Vince, pronouns he/him. He is a tall white man in his early 40’s with mostly white hair and salt and pepper stubble. You will often find him spinning, jumping and climbing around the Lighthouse.

The next visitor is played by Kj, pronouns he/him. He is a black man in his mid 30’s, with an athletic build, and is roughly the same height as the first visitor. He has black hair with an afro on top and short back and sides. He has a languid and flowy movement language & loves mixing that with floor work & street dance styles.

And the final visitor is played by Lois, pronouns she/her. She is slightly shorter than the other two visitors and is in her early 30s. She has a blonde, curly, unruly shoulder length barnet. They are happiest whilst upside down and spinning through the space.

Later, our mysterious visitors reveal themselves as robots, who can also operate the various elements of the lighthouse. To start, their movement is juddery and glitchy. They take over, whilst the Wickie, both enthralled and unnerved can only watch as they move dynamically over, under and across the entire lighthouse with speed and agility.

When the mysterious visitors or robots first appear, they are wearing black tracksuits that are covered with silver and iridescent reflective patches, based on the style found in early 90’s rave culture.

As the story progresses, they tear off the reflective patches and their dark jackets to reveal more colourful, psychedelic and fluorescent areas of colour. There is a compass motif on some patches, connecting the robots to the lighthouse. The robots become more colourful, showing assimilation to their surroundings, and to the Wickie, who’ll eventually remove his yellow fisherman’s coat and hat to show a more rave inspired outfit. This has a glowing, neon green and orange lighthouse motif on the front of the top, and green glowing lights in stripes on the sleeves. There are green reflective stripes down the trouser legs too. As the robots become more colourful, their movement becomes less robotic and more fluid with soft curves and gentle lifts and turns.

That brings us to the end of the introductory notes. We hope you enjoy the show.