I am writing to you as the president of the Association of Lighting Designers, and as the Founder of
Theatre Projects, an international
theatre design company that for 60 years has been at the forefront of British
theatre technology, responsible for the
stage design of the National
Theatre, and for over 1,500
theatre projects in 80 counties.
I have been a
lighting designer for over 60 years. British
theatre now faces an extraordinary crisis. On Saturday 7 May consultation on an amazing EU draft regulation – the Energy Directorate’s Eco-design Working Plan 2016-19 – will close. If confirmed, in 2020 virtually all
stage lighting equipment used throughout the British
Theatre and entertainment industry will be rendered obsolete and the lamps within that create the light be unobtainable.
British
theatre and British lighting design leads the world. This month alone on Broadway, two productions, Harry Potter and the Cursed Child, lit by Neil Austin, and Angels in America, lit by Paule Constable, have attracted universal critical acclaim.
This draft regulation not only bans
incandescent lamps, but virtually all the discharge and
LED light sources that have been developed in recent years to reduce the
theatre’s carbon footprint. This is a very real crisis. No existing entertainment lighting equipment presently meets the new theoretical
power requirement.
If, in 18 months, such equipment were to be invented – an aim apparently pushing beyond the boundaries of physics today – it would certainly cost as much as five to 10 times the equipment it replaces. This is, therefore, a potential financial disaster at best, and an artistic and
practical catastrophe for every
theatre in the land.
The eco-design plan must exempt entertainment lighting from this mistaken regulation. The alternative may be dark and bankrupt theatres everywhere. Never again will the glories of our stages be seen in a proper light.
Richard Pilbrow
President, Association of Lighting Designers
