Oh! What a Lovely War

Theatre Royal Stratford East presents a new production of Oh What a Lovely War in its 50th anniversary year to coincide with the 100th anniversary of the First World War.

The show was a landmark in early multimedia theatre in the 60s, making use of projected slides and a ‘ticker tape’ panel of lightbulbs to present statistics as the war unfolded. We ran with this, developing this into video through a series of stills, period paintings and photographs to set the location and help with the frenetic change of scenes. The ticker tape was updated to a section of LED panel, the statistics creeping across with the slowness of a rolling news graphic, and the original slides researched, re-sourced and added to with archive material from the Imperial War Museum.

“There’s a homespun feel about Johnson’s production which is true to the spirit of the original while also making deft use of projections” – Evening Standard

In homage to the original, we still start the show with a slide projector – we photographed and developed the slides ourselves in the Mesmer studio.

“As the casualty count and gaining of ground is replayed on an electronic board, scenes unfold in front of it that give a human face to the alarming statistics.” – The Stage

Client:
Theatre Royal Stratford East

Location:
TRSE, London, 2014
Uk Tour, 2015

Services:
Video & Projection Design
Content Creation

Team:
Video Designer: Ian William Galloway
Associate Designer: Leo Flint
Researcher: Bella Riza
Slide Photography: Ben Walden

Production Credits:
Director: Terry Johnson
Set and Costume Designer: Lez Brotherston
Lighting Designer: Paul Pyant
Sound Designer: Mike Walker

Photos:
© Mesmer