Interview: Automation, Bikes & Cars - Special Effects in Theatre

Welcome to the next installment in our Special Effects series, celebrating the worlds off stage from some of the UK's biggest shows on stage. Last month, we dissected blood, guts and more with The Lieutenant of Inishmore and Tamburlaine. This time, we're exploring the setup required to leave characters like that, 'Torn and twisted at the foot of a burning bike'.

Tech Assistant Stage Manager for Bat Out of Hell, Gary Wall has been with the production since its first run in Manchester. Talking bats and bikes, Gary reveals the 'backstage ballet' that is automation, and just how many cues a show of this scale has.

Can you take us through your role?

My role is the Technical Assistant Stage Manager, looking after all the technical aspects of the stage management side of the show. So that includes effects like the slash curtain, the motorbikes and the bats.

And have you always worked in SM?

Actually I've moved around a bit. I started as a Stage Hand in Manchester. Then I trained in Scenic Carpentry and Painting and started touring Rock 'n' Roll, Spice Girls, as well as the first ever live concerts for Gorillaz.

Then I returned to theatre as the Deputy Stage Manager at the Opera House in Manchester for four years, before moving to the West End and working on shows such as: Love Never Dies; One Man Two Guvnors; Sweeney Todd; The Bodyguard; and MAMMA MIA!. After that, I toured shows such as Saturday Night Fever; Harry Enfield; and Ghost The Musical in China most recently.

So where will we find you during the show?

As SM, we're constantly watching and moving around, but where we are right now is a bit of a hub: Stage Right wing.

Here, we've got pieces of kit ready to go: the bikes, the car, the bats. We also keep maintenance kit here. And of course we have the bat cave (aka our quick change area).

There's a lot going on back here!

It's one of the biggest backstages in the West End alongside the Coliseum.

So you've been with the show through its various incarnations and venues?

Yes, I joined in Manchester and have been with it since (except for the Toronto leg). Having worked the opera house before, I knew the venue very well and it's always challenging because of the size.

So when I saw just how large the set was, I was gobsmacked! In the Stage Right wing there we were squeezing past each other.

I imagine elements of the show are changed depending on the venue.

Definitely and a good example of that is the bats. It's actually been quite a challenge with this part of the special effects, here at the Dominion. In Manchester we had one bat and moved on to five at the Coliseum.

The challenge that we've had here is that the angles were all worked out for previous venues with boxes. Here, we have to fly the bats into the circle. So we sat down for days, trying to work out how we were going to do that, because the angles here are so different and the steepness affects how they fly.

How is that flying effect achieved?

Unfortunately, that is a well kept secret!

They say never work with children or animals (even electronic ones!) Do they always want to come out?

Yes, like children and animals, they can be quite temperamental and sometimes they get a bit of stage fright!

So while that's going on behind the scenes, there's a lot going on above the scenes too...

Yes. You kind of think of the stage being in the spotlight and the wings where everything happens. But above and below, you've got all kinds of workings going on.

The fly floor is where all the automation is operated. The desk and the racks, they're essentially the brain of anything that moves. So everything that moves during the show is pretty much automated. Falco Tower, the drainpipe, the cage, the motorbike exploding. We've got all those sequences in the book which the show is called from by the DSM.

Can you take us through an example of automation from the show?

So with the car, everything is worked from underneath the stage. You've got a series of steel wire ropes and spades and the car is connected to those under the stage.

Upstairs on the desk, we have a series of cues. Once a cue is called, they press go, the car will start moving downstage into position and when Raven's pushing the car into the orchestra pit at the end, it's being run by the computer (sorry, she's not super strong!)

We also have a series of smaller effects within the car. We have remotes and at the click of a button, the magnets will release the tablecloth so it can reveal the car. Another button is for the seats and windows which pop up and fold away.

One of those would be handy for parking in London!

Exactly! I did Grease once on tour and we obviously used a car for that too. At one of the venues, it was parked outside as the guys were loading it in. And it got a parking ticket!

So what's your favourite piece of automation from the show?

The exploding bike (again a tight lipped secret).

But we do get quite a few other moments with the bikes throughout and they are brilliant.

Yes. We've got two types: a friction and an automated bike. So the cast use the friction bikes and the way it works is basically like a normal motorbike. We've got a big battery which powers everything, traction wheels and a series of other wheels which give the effect of the bike moving.

And these are operated by an ignition, which will make it move. These are actually quite powerful machines, they can get up to about 15 - 20mph.

And is there anything manual involved with those?

Well, we use a revolve for quick changes between them. The way we get them on and off is basically a railroad system. The bikes themselves are spaded into these tracks, which makes the bikes able to roll underneath the stage. And then we have the revolves: so if one bike comes off this side and needs to go on again, this revolve spins it 360 all the way for it to re-enter.

So bikes, bats, cars...you don't realise just how many cues there are! How many are there in total?

Close to 500 and everyone has their own individual tracks. And it's like I said earlier, it's nice to have such a big team.

And as SM, we've got to constantly be looking at what people are doing. You have to have eyes in the back of your head. With all that's going on onstage, the cast's safety is our main priority as well as our own. It can be quite a dangerous environment and this set particularly is physically challenging for everyone.

You've got the choreography going on onstage and off. We've got our own choreography with everyone in specific places: crew moving set, cast coming on and off, quick changes etc. Everything is planned and rehearsed to a T. It's basically backstage ballet and the bit the audience don't get to see.

Bat Out of Hell at Dominion Theatre until 5 January

Photo credit: Specular