Mosquitoes

Alice is a scientist. She lives in Geneva. As the Large Hadron Collider starts up in 2008, Alice is on the brink of the most exciting work of her life, searching for the Higgs Boson.

Jenny is her sister. She lives in Luton. She spends a lot of time Googling. When tragedy throws them together, the collision threatens them all with chaos. Olivia Colman and Olivia Williams play the sisters in Mosquitoes, a new drama from Chimerica writer Lucy Kirkwood, directed by Rufus Norris.

“At times it feels like you are sat inside a proton. At others, it makes you feel like the world could end at any moment” – British Theatre ****

Ian William Galloway designed a swirling, planetarium-like immersive projection environment for Mosquitoes from original research material Finn Ross gathered at CERN.

We illustrated the numerous big bangs and universe implosions required by the script with a system of cell-like particles, natural in appearance and able to represent everything from the behaviour of an atom to a map of the galaxy. These were projected onto a tracking ‘lens’, onto the floor, and through smoke in the air.

“We are swept up – courtesy of the marvellous swirling video designs of Finn Ross and Ian William Galloway – into various endgame scenarios for the cosmos.” – The Independent ****

Client:
National Theatre

Location:
Dorfman Theatre, NT, London, 2017

Services:
Video & Projection Design
Content Creation

Team:
Video Designer: Ian William Galloway
Co-Designer: Finn Ross
Lead Animator: Rafael Vartanian
Animator: Daniel Radley-Bennett
Animator: Letty Fox
Programmer: Katie Pitt

Production Credits:
Director: Rufus Norris
Production Designer: Katrina Lindsay
Lighting Designer: Paule Constable
Sound Designer: Paul Arditti
Composer: Adam Cork

Photos:
© National Theatre / Brinkhoff Mogenburg
© Mesmer