Peter Gynt

This National Theatre and Edinburgh International Festival adaptation of Peter Gynt by David Hare was directed by Jonathan Kent.

Peter Gynt opened at the National Theatre in July 2019 before opening the Edinburgh Festival and then returned to the National Theatre Olivier stage. The projection design was therefore required to work in two very different stagings and was achieved with precise integration of Richard Hudson’s staging design. This included a 100m² curved screen using only one projector positioned within the flying set items and also included a flown screen with tracking media.

“It’s a collection of vignettes as a man trudges on an existential crisis through his life, trying to find its essential meaning, against the odds of crises, large and small. These include a very moving scene as he comforts his dying mother, and surviving both a plane crash and a shipwreck (both events brilliantly staged in Richard Hudson’s sets and Dick Straker’s video design).” – Mark Shenton, London Theatre

The demands of the original writing require a lifetimes worth of location through real and fantastic adventures and the adaptation adds in contemporary perspectives on this. Drowning at sea, visiting the Sphinx en route to an asylum whilst constantly returning to his native Scotland, Peter is assisted in this journey through the realisation of the video design.

The landscape filming was all done on location by Dick and the additional animation effects with the assistance of the Mesmer team. It was delivered using Disguise media servers.

Client:
National Theatre

Location:
National Theatre, London, 2019
Edinburgh Festival Theatre, Edinburgh, 2019

Services:
Video & Projection Design
Content Creation

Team:
Video Designer: Dick Straker
Animator: Daniel Denton
Animator: Rafael Vartanian
Animator: Ana Stefaniak

Production Credits:
Director: Jonathan Kent
Set and Costume Designer: Richard Hudson
Lighting Designer: Mark Henderson
Sound Designer: Chris Shutt

Photos:
© Mesmer