CORTEO
Cirque du Soleil technical director Gerard Edwards-Webb discusses how and why his team is completely redesigning the layout of the Royal Albert Hall for the arrival of Corteo in January
CHRISTOPHER BARRETT
TRANSFORMING THE ROYAL ALBERT HALL
Since Queen Victoria opened the Royal Albert Hall in 1871 you could be forgiven for thinking the venue has seen it all . It has hosted everything from Jimi Hendrix to The Proms , Sumu wrestling to an indoor marathon , but it has never been transformed in the way that Cirque du Soleil has planned for its incoming production Corteo .
The show will run at the hall from 9 January through to 2 March , and during that time visitors will witness a complete transformation of the interior of the beautiful old building .
The Cirque du Soleil team is completely redesigning the layout of the hall to split it into two halves , with each half of the audience facing the other and the stage in the middle , giving attendees a performer ’ s eye view of the audience . Many of the boxes and stalls are being moved to create the new look . It is also the heaviest show that Cirque du Soleil has bought to the Royal Albert Hall since it began working there nearly three decades ago , with 67 tonnes hanging from the grid .
Overseeing the complex staging and production process is Cirque du Soleil technical director Gerard Edwards-Webb . He talks us through what ’ s involved .
Cirque has been staging shows at the Royal Albert Hall since 1996 . How does that long lasting relationship benefit you from a production perspective ? Over the years at the Royal Albert Hall we ’ ve added to the building collaboratively , many , many different anchor points and structures that are required to secure the shows , because
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