The Witches of Eastwick is based on a John Updike novel of the same name and was a West End hit in 2000 at the Theatre Royal, Drury Lane, London. Stage Technologies supplied the complete automation systems for the original Cameron Mackintosh production in London and for subsequent productions and the UK tour. The show was later redesigned to fit smaller theatres and travelled overseas to Australia and Japan. Our team in Australia worked with IMG to install the touring system and with Toho Co Ltd’s Theatrical Division again to create the performer flying effects for Japan’s third production.
Stage Technologies supplied the complex flying system for the 2007 Japan production in just 2 days, from load in to flying demonstrations at the Imperial Theatre, Tokyo.
Nine BigTow winches were installed to achieve the flying effect, with each performer being flown by a group of three winches. One winch was mounted above the stage and another was mounted to a truss above the auditorium, which traversed along the length of truss with the use of a third winch. Controlled and programmed from an Acrobat control desk, the group is synchronised so that the performer can be lifted and flown within a specific area. Using the award-winning Visual Creator software, carefully-constructed, 3-dimensional flight paths and curves were plotted with the use of virtual axes.
