On light

Conditions of light and dark permeate every experience, in myriad ways that may affect visual, proprioceptive, temporal or imaginative sensibilities. Light itself, however, remains ephemeral, transient and mysterious. Performance reveals that light can be both material and immaterial, thing and non-thing, as light in contemporary scenography exerts a significant phenomenal presence, one that may be felt by performers and audience, and as an object in space, while remaining tantalisingly intangible. It is, therefore, particularly apt that this special issue emerges close to the winter solstice, the darkest point in the year for the Northern Hemisphere and the time of the longest days in the Southern Hemisphere. This geographical contrast provides a timely prompt for considering differential experiences of light and dark, the ways in which light can shape understandings of performance and the world around us, and how these differential experiences produce richly diverse cultural understandings of light. Individually and (especially) collectively, the articles in this issue celebrate the multiple ways in which the research and practice of performance lighting can uncover rich questions about experience, materiality and aesthetics, in ways that are applicable far beyond the stage.

The idea for this special issue arose from our previous scholarly work on and practice in light. Individually, our research and practice have explored aspects of light on stage (and beyond), including meaning, audience reception and experience, (im)materiality, language and contemporary processes, historical reappraisals of light practitioners, collaboration, dramaturgy, and aesthetics (e.g. Palmer 2013, 2021; Graham 2018, 2020; Zezulka 2019). Recently, we have drawn these interests together through the volume Contemporary Performance Lighting: Experience, Creativity and Meaning (Graham, Palmer and Zezulka 2023). That edited collection – the first of its kind – brings together scholars and practitioners to expand conversations about light in critical terms. Where once publications about theatrical light focused almost exclusively on discussions of the craft and technical skill involved in lighting design for performance, Contemporary Performance Lighting serves as an expansion to the now growing critical understanding of the affective, dramaturgical and material contributions of light (and its absence, darkness) to performance and the value of light as an area of research. Drawing together contributions from practitioners, scholars and academics, it seeks to establish the breadth of ideas pertaining to light, and to use the three critical analytical frameworks – experience, creativity and meaning – to shape the terms of the debate about light as a material of and for performance.

Theatrical applications of light are also increasingly evident beyond the stage, and light is frequently observed operating as a transformative material in environmental and cultural sectors. In the fields of cultural geography and architecture, light has been acknowledged as an integral aspect of the wider experience economy manifested through light festivals, for example (e.g. Edensor 2014), and in our experience of the built environment (e.g. Edensor 2017; Isenstadt et al. 2015).

This special issue draws together a mix of scholarly and practitioner voices and marks an important contribution to light scholarship that follows a decade of unparalleled developments in research in this field (see e.g. Abulafia 2016; Baugh 2013; Crisafulli 2013; Fitzgerald 2022; Humalisto et al. 2019; Moran 2017; Palmer 2013). Theatre and Performance Design has provided an inspiring home for critical scenographic thinking since its launch in 2015, and this has included important research on light and lighting (e.g. Graham 2016; Hunt 2018; Palmer 2015; Richier 2020) and related areas such as projection (e.g. volume 3 issue 3, 2017). We are delighted to extend this work with this special issue, which we believe to be the first edition of any scholarly journal in the English language to concentrate solely on the material of light as an agential force in contemporary performance.

Contributors to this special issue bring with them a range of scholarly and practitioner perspectives on light. While the contributions here represent an array of disparate approaches to light, all of the articles have a shared focus on light as a dramaturgical force and the dramaturgy of light, foregrounding throughout this special issue light’s meaning-making potential. There is a strong sense of moving away from thinking about light as being responsive and instead being a primary dramaturgical agent in performance.

Light is, of course, more than its visual qualities, and all of our contributors argue for light as a dynamic and affective force in performance. This is equally true in the short essay in this issue, by Amy Chan, and the visual essay by Hansjorg Schmidt. Chan is an exciting practitioner from Hong Kong and an emerging critical voice on light as a performance material. Her contribution here uses a critical framework drawn from Karen Barad to examine her own experiments with light and their interaction with sound. Likewise, Schmidt uses his personal and professional experiences designing light and working with Fevered Sleep to examine time, memory and collaboration, thinking about light’s temporality as a musical score rather than as a linear process of time-based cues.

Megan Reilly’s article puts her practice as a lighting designer in conversation with scenographic experiences of natural light and darkness, reflecting on her visit to the Initiation Wells at Quinta da Regaleira, Portugal. For Reilly, the navigation of light and dark here offers a way of thinking through artistic collaboration with material qualities of light and dark as well as the ways that these might be harnessed in theatrical stagings (as in her practice) and architectural settings (as in the staging of these wells). Examining another scenographic material often paired with light but rarely discussed together critically, in the opening article of this issue, Alicia Jane Turner uses her experience as both audience member and performer to examine ‘noisy’ light, using the vocabulary of sound to explore light as interruption in the Young Vic’s Oklahoma! and Christopher Brett Bailey’s This Is How We Die.

Elsewhere in this issue, we are delighted to have Italian lighting designer Fabrizio Crisafulli’s writing highlighting, in the English language, a previously under-acknowledged area of performance lighting design. Crisafulli discusses the importance of the Futurists’ influence in Italian practice and how this legacy is harnessed through his teaching and in his own practice to explore the agency of light. Like Schmidt, he challenges traditional uses of light technologies, employing in his work devices not specifically designed for theatrical use, and through deep experimentation how he is able to reveal hidden qualities of light in an astonishing array of light imagery.

Finally, Nick Hunt explores a particular, and hitherto largely ignored, quality of staged light – its directionality – with a depth of criticality to examine the relationship between actors, light and audience. Unpacking approaches to light through this lens, he posits a relational framework to conceptualise light’s phenomenal in-betweenness in performance.

The ways in which light interacts with and acts upon other scenographic elements are captured here, as contributions consider multiple modes and languages of light in performance, and – in Reilly’s case – beyond performance settings. There remains much to be said about the intersection of light with sound – another immaterial scenographic material – and contributions from Turner and Chan here frame this relationship in exciting ways. Similarly, in strengthening the move away from purely technical concerns in light research, contributions in this issue think through technological possibilities (Schmidt) and legacies (Crisafulli and Hunt), providing a critical grounding to this area of light practice.

Taken together, all of the articles here enable new ways of theorising light’s role in performance. As a whole, then, this issue celebrates the multiplicity of light in the expanded field of scenography, establishing that this field offers a realm in which encounters, experiences and meanings are composed and thus afford a privileged site through which to explore the intersection of materials and understanding. In this context, light is an especially potent subject of analysis; light is imbricated with space and site, and is actively in relation with all other theatrical elements. In addition, light is bound up with both the temporal and the sensorial experience of performance in ways that provoke questions about the links between the aesthetic and the ethical in contemporary scenographic practice. Our ambition is for this edition to provoke further thinking about light and especially with the hope of encouraging new voices around the globe to contribute to this vital and rapidly expanding field of research.

As this special issue On Light goes into production we have learned of the sad passing of Richard Pilbrow (1933–2023). As Laurence Olivier’s lighting designer at the Chichester Festival theatre and then for the National Theatre Company at the Old Vic, he became the consultant for the new National Theatre building on London’s South Bank. Richard was central to the emergence of lighting design as a creative practice in the UK. His 1970 publication Stage Lighting was hugely influential and became the key sourcebook for practitioners and the cornerstone of lighting education in the UK for three decades. During his extraordinary life Richard co-founded The Society of British Theatre Designers (SBTD), The Association of British Theatre Technicians (ABTT) and The Association of Lighting Designers (now ALPD), and established the influential consultancy Theatre Projects. He was an award-winning designer on Broadway and London. His last book, A Sense of Theatre – The Untold Story of the National Theatre, is due to be published in the spring. In recognising Richard’s significant contribution to the discipline of lighting design, the editors dedicate this special issue On Light to his memory.