Produced by Copenhagen’s Østre Gasværk Teater, critically acclaimed rock-theatre adaptation of Pink Floyd’s iconic 1979 concept album, The Wall, the stage rendition of Another Brick in The Wall, Part 5 is a continuation of the original work’s thematic trilogy.
The production premiered in 2023 at the Østre Gasværk, directed by Heinrich Christensen. Motor Stage Automation (MSA) has been involved as an automation supplier and expert since the start.
The challenge for these latest versions of the production was to make it safely tour-able for the two major Danish venues on the itinerary, the Jyske Bank Boxen in Herning, western Denmark, and the Royal Arena in Copenhagen.
MSA’s team was led by Project Manager, Daniel Klausen, and they collaborated with Aerial Choreographer, Sita Bhuller Otto, and Mathias Kromann, Head of Automation at the Østre Gasværk, as well as flying-at-height expert Troels Frydensberg on the personnel flying aspects of the show, which involved five special performer winches.
The scope of MSA’s work also included supplying five stage lifts, a full MOVEKET I-Motion Expert-T III control system, a comprehensive under-stage CCTV spotting system to monitor the stage lift system, together with all the innovation, creativity and expertise in the art of automation that comes with the MSA package.
The five stage lifts comprised three MSA M:L 1020-L stage lifts and two M:L 1020-Ss.The three M:L 1020-Ls were positioned upstage, two fitted with separate 1×2 metre platforms on top and a custom 2m by 2m platform for the third, which were all utilised to raise and lower sections of the band into and out of view as the narrative unfolded.
Each lift has an ELL of 450kg, and in addition to the band and their backline kit, the lifts had to deal with acoustic panels around the drummer. The two M:L 1020-S lifts were built into the staging itself and were driven in sync – another customisation achieved using the MOVEKET control system. Their task was to lift actors and performers on and off the stage via a circular platform cut out from the main stage set.
A custom CCTV system was designed and installed by the MSA team under the stage, allowing automation operator Jakob Thau to have eyes on exactly what was happening around all the moving elements.
Soft Edge protection – a gentler transition in control behaviour – is inbuilt into all MSA’s stage lifts. It was tweaked for this show for the synced pair of lifts raising the circular scenery platform, a precaution in the event of any unintended close contact with performers.
The performer flying system was devised using four MOVEKET 125kg VMW-S high-speed entertainment winches – which can move at a blistering 3m a second and are fully approved for artist flying. These were rigged inside a 6m diameter 52cm trussing circle suspended from the mother grid above.
Flown slightly higher in the roof was one Alfa System ZF Winch, complete with bespoke designed and fabricated parts to fit it into half of the 3-metre section of HOF MLT TWO trussing. Several special adaptor plates were fabricated to make this then fit within the automation trussing circle holding the other four winches. The extra capacity of the ZF winch was specifically needed for a ‘chandelier’ style aerial effect performed involving five people hanging together from the same point.
In a theatre staging of this production, the automation would typically be hidden behind blacks and borders, but for this version, the creative team decided that the industrial look was an eye-catching complement to the set. Naturally, this made it slightly easier and more practical to tour, and it also involved plenty of good synergy between automation and lighting departments.
Two trussing circles defined the overhead space – the automation one and another larger one for lighting, and the flying wires also had to pass through the lighting truss unhindered, so precision, co-ordination and teamwork were critical.
The MOVEKET I-Motion Expert-T III console – running with a fully redundant backup – controlled all the automation elements. Operator Jakob Thau was on the road as was Head of Automation, Mathias Kromann. An additional crew of four technicians were supplied by MSA for the ins and outs.
All the products used were EN 17206 certified and adapted by MSA to work in this scenario with MOVEKET, Alfa Systems, HOF, etc all being highly reliable and trusted, so only one MSA automation technician was needed to run the shows.
The greatest challenge from an automation perspective was transitioning the show from a theatre environment with a basement to arena venues. Boxen was the first, and then it was moved to the Royal Arena, which had to be achieved quickly, safely and precisely.
4K Projects were hired by Østre Gasværk Teater to co-ordinate all the technical production on the tour, and other companies involved included Allround Rental, VIGSØ Dryhire, Allround Lyd & Lys and Live Nation. Østre Gasværk Teater Manager, Søren Møller, commented: “We were all proud and happy about the collaboration with Motor Stage Automation! It makes our work with automation and aerial performance safe, secure and highly disciplined.”
