Howard Harrison casts light over Shadowlands with Ayrton Rivale Profiles
Award-winning lighting designer, Howard Harrison, has chosen Ayrton Rivale Profiles as his only moving lights – amounting to 95% of the entire rig – for the West End transfer of Shadowlands which has just opened in London’s Aldwych Theatre.
William Nicholson’s play tells the story of Oxford academic and author of the Narnia Chronicles, C.S. Lewis’, correspondence and subsequent relationship with the American poet, Joy Gresham. The action juxtaposes scenes of honeyed-stone, booklined academic interiors, with the brighter, more modern world of Gresham, both intertwined with brief but visually impactful transitions into wooded, snowy, dream-like Narnia.
Directed by Rachel Kavanaugh and designed by Peter McKintosh, this revival of Chichester Theatre’s 2019 production has a very different look from Chichester’s wide auditorium and apron stage, having a much more intimate setting well-suited to the subject matter and the Aldwych’s small proscenium stage.
The production’s multi-layered storytelling and multiplicity of settings called for a compact, versatile lighting fixture that could adapt to all purposes, fit into the Aldwych’s tight rigging space and, by so doing, reduce the need for numerous fixture types.
Having used 150 Rivale Profiles in 2025 on the Spanish musical production of Cinderella which is still running in Madrid, Harrison fell in love with the fixture, so was delighted to find they were available from White Light, meaning he could incorporate them into his design for Shadowlands.
“I’d found the Rivale Profiles to be so versatile – a kind of ‘do everything’ kind of fixture that could work as a spot, beam and wash fixture all in one unit,” Harrison explains. “This was exactly what I needed to bring out the subtle emotional beats that Shadowlands called for.
“The play contains many quiet, intimate scenes requiring tight control so the shutters on every unit are essential. The colour rendition is excellent, able to transition between the naturalistic Oxford interiors and heightened moments with ease, and it has the best CTO wheel I have ever come across in a moving light.
“They are very bright, yet have a superb frost system that allows me to shift the fixture from profile‑type textures to soft washes depending on the emotional tone of the scene.”
The Narnia sequences, although only lasting 45-90 seconds, were the most technically and creatively complex lighting moments where Harrison used the Rivale Profiles to create atmosphere and “air” in the tight upstage space, and deliver fast, dynamic transformations blended with dry ice and effects for some magical transitions.
“The Rivale Profile is an incredibly flexible unit which was crucial for handling the large shifts in tone and wide dynamic range from subtle realism to magical fantasy – often in a very short space of time – that are core to the play,” says Harrison. “The fixtures can really turn their hand to pretty much anything. I was very happy to find White Light had Rivale Profile in stock and to know they are readily available and supported in the UK. I’m a big fan of them, and will definitely be using them again.”
Harrison was quick to praise the service he received from White Light as the production’s lighting supplier: “White Light was as excellent as always in making everything run so smoothly, and their efficiency and knowledge is always extremely valued on a show of this calibre. I’d particularly like to thank our great production electrician, Ben Nicholls, together with Michael Scott and lighting programmer, Leon Leitner who made a really great team.”
« The Ayrton Rivale Profiles provide excellent performance across multiple environments and allow our clients to achieve even greater flexibility within their productions,” concludes Dom Yates, Head of Lighting at White Light. “They’ve already proved to be a valuable asset and we’re extremely happy to have them as part of our rental fleet.”
Credits:
Text: Julie Harper
Photos: © Johan Persson
