Absinthe Production Design by Vivian Lu is a highly esteemed winner of the very prestigious 2020 Silver A' Design Award in Performing Arts, Stage, Style and Scenery Design Competition Category.
SilverPerforming Arts· 2020
Absinthe Production Design
by Vivian Lu
Client: Vivian Lu Design Studio Limited
Silver A' Design Award Winner in Performing Arts Category
Verified Award Winner
Verify Award Status for #98919The Design
About Absinthe Production Design
Absinthe is a stage design created for a theatrical play about physics, matter and psychology. The set is built around an oval stage that represents time and can also be read as a galaxy or a continuous loop. Dark reflective panels covered with splattered paint suggest a vast and mysterious universe. A custom laser light sound visualiser allows sound to be seen, because the laser beams are distorted by the frequency of the voices of the actors. Every angle of the stage was tested so the performers could walk, run and jump safely.
The Recognition
About the Silver A' Design Award
Absinthe Production Design is a Silver A' Design Award winner, an extraordinarily prestigious recognition granted to top-of-the-line, gorgeous, and impressive designs. Silver winners are tremendously brilliant and exceedingly creative works that illustrate the outstanding expertise, talent, and acuity of their designers. Absinthe Production Design is expected to be a wonderful, showpiece work that is remarkably professional and profoundly innovative. This Silver A' Design Award-winning design is a highly notable, admired invention that benefits and advances the boundaries of art, science, design, and technology. Absinthe Production Design is a vastly envied creation that evokes desires, introduces positive feelings, and sparks amazement and wonderment.
Where to Get It
Award-Winning Stage and Scenography Design
We transform theatrical visions into immersive stage experiences through innovative scenography. Our expertise spans theatre sets, production design, runway shows, and large-scale events. With over 60 productions delivered internationally, we blend cutting-edge technology with bold artistic concepts to create emotionally engaging performances that captivate audiences.
Discuss Your ProjectInterviews
Design Interview
What is the main principle, idea and inspiration behind your design?
Absinthe was a project that gave me a chance to explore the potential visuals created by merging physics and scenography. This was a play that explored topics on physics, matter, and psychology.
During the initial design stage, there were a lot of discussions on how to tackle such a complex play, where deep subjects were discussed, so it was important to have the set visually portray the topics in a manner that guided the audience into the discussions and immerse them into a new world. Therefore, my main aim was to experiment with different methods that enhanced audiences' senses within their theatrical experience, and find new ways to capture their imagination and make them think more deeply about their relationships with time.
What has been your main focus in designing this work? Especially what did you want to achieve?
With Absinthe, I tried to merge different forms of senses together (sound and sight) and to magnify them to create a lasting visceral experiences for the audience.
Collaborating with the director, we tried intently to create a new form of storytelling by incorporating digital medias and different forms of art performance together as we strongly believe that immersive technologies have unearthed a power to enhance our senses in theatre.
What are your future plans for this award winning design?
We are hoping to bring this to further touring destination in 2021.
Behind the Design
Press Kit
Credits, team members and technical details provided by the designer.
- Unique Properties
- Vivian introduced the technology of laser light sound visualiser to magnify senses in the whole theatrical experiences, and allowed sound to be seen. She custom-made different laser light gadgets and experiments with different materials to find the best one to be used on stage. Every angle of the middle circular stage was carefully designed and the inclusion of technology brought a whole new blend of artistic richness in theatre. The beauty of the design is the limitless interpretation of the set according to their understanding of the play. The oval stage represents time, but can be seen as the milky way, Möbius band etc.
- Dimensions & Packaging
- Vivian experimented with different forms of custom-made sound laser visualiser to best utilise actors on stage
- Tags
- Scenography, Stage Design, merging physics and set design
- Production Technology
- The project required a lot of research and experimentation, especially experimenting with the laser light sound visualizer, making sure the visuals created from different sound frequencies went hand in hand with the general set design. A lot of prior research also had to be done on the subject matter or physics, black holes and relativity, to create a stage that portrayed elements of these subjects, to allow audiences to quickly connect and be immersed into the show as it was a play that discussed quite complex subjects. For the staging and material we chose dark reflective panels to create the effect of this vast yet mysterious universe, also covering it with splattered paint to symbolise the milky galaxy. This and stage received great feedback, and special mentions on review platforms highlighted and praised the stage design and effects, and how it truly immersed people into the story.
- Design Challenge
- On the initial design part, there are a lot of discussions on how to tactic a complex play, where many deep subjects were discussed and visually portray it all in a manner that guided the audience into the topics and be immersed into the world. Technically during production the curvature of the oval shape had to be very exact, as we wanted to visually make it look really smooth when we detach it to different shapes. The kinds of wheels were also a very big technical challenge as the different points of attaching the wheels made a huge difference on the stage's mobility.
- Research
- Every angle of the main stage was experimented with consideration of the feasibility on how actor’s move on set. We experimented with different inclination of the set and prior to the performance, we trained actors to walk, run and jump at different angles we have on the circular stage to avoid stage accidents. The whole stage was built with extensive technological difficulties and precision because we had to find the balance of designing it to achieve desired artistic visual but also take intensive examination that structurally it is strong enough withstand immense weight.
- Inspiration
- Absinthe was a project that has given Vivian a chance to explore potential visuals merging physics and scenography. It was a play that explored topics on physics, matter and psychology. She wanted to experiment with different ways to unearth a new power to enhance audiences sense in the whole theatrical experiences. Vivian wanted to find new ways to capture audience’s imagination and to see how to create different relationship with time.
- Project Duration
- The show was first showcased in Beijing in 2019 then toured around in Shenzhen and Shanghai in 2020.
- Operation Flow
- Through the sound vibrations spoken from the actors, laser lights were distorted based on the frequency of spoken sound. The visuals that came out from the actors and actress voice varies drastically due to the pitch of their specific voice.. The actors rehearsed for months with the devices to create a specific imagery to go with the set design.
- Team Members
- Stage Designer : Vivian Lu
Director : Johnny Tam
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