THE THIRD MAN
PROFILE AWARD FOR OUTSTANDING ACHIEVEMENT IN MUSICAL THEATRE 2024
Menier Chocolate Factory
June - September 2023
Direction: Trevor Nunn
Music: George Fenton
Books & Lyrics: Don Black & Christopher Hampton
Set & Costume Design: Paul Farnsworth
Lighting: Emma Chapman
Sound Design: Gregory Clarke
Musical Supervision & Direction: Tamara Saringer
Orchestrations: Jason Carr
Choreography: Rebecca Howell
Co-Director: Michael Oakley
Photos by Manuel Harlan
“It's triumph is in its monochrome design, which seems like a black and white film come to life. Paul Farnsworth's set encapsulates the look and feel of a noir together with Emma Chapman's lighting, which throws out an elegant welter of lamplight, long shadows and thrillerish effects”
Arifa Akbar, The Guardian
“Putting in a mosaic floor, Paul Farnsworth lends ideally disheveled, old-world charm to the Menier Chocolate Factory’s stage, and his open space gives free reign to Emma Chapman’s excellent, steeply angled, film-noir lighting. She paints less with light than shadows. With the audience on three sides, her lighting and Nunn’s handling of action mean the numerous chases are notably effective.”
David Benedict, Variety
“illuminated by Emma Chapman’s pitch-perfect lighting work.”
Ian Bowkett, Musical Theatre Review
“Emma Chapman’s gorgeous lighting design produces myriad effects, with an austere palette of cold white and warmer sepia tones. Chapman plays with shadows and silhouettes, outlining stalking figures in silvery light or haloing them in blue clouds of cigarette smoke. Specific details are picked out by fuzzy spotlights, like the small island of illumination directly under a street lamp.”
Dave Fargnoli, The Stage
“Of the production elements, the lighting by Emma Chapman impresses. With The Third Man remaining dark and gloomy throughout, there is a versatile approach to lighting effects which keeps the mood while ensuring sightlines are kept – played perfectly when using shadows to great effect and revealing hidden elements in dark areas of the stage.”
Daz Gale, All that Dazzles
“The clever use of projections and lighting by Emma Chapman effectively adds depth to the stage, enhancing the visual experience. The attention to detail in recreating the film's iconic locations is praiseworthy, immersing the audience in the world of the story and allowing them to relive its most memorable moments..”
Lisamarie Lamb, West End Best Friend
“Paul Farnsworth’s set design is magnificent, the entire space transformed into war-torn Vienna, with a subtly raked stage creating a nod to the ‘dutch’ camera angles used in the film. The similarities don’t end there, a combination of the set, costumes and Emma Chapman’s lighting design creates the sense you’re watching a live play in black and white.”
Greg Stewart, Theatre Weekly
“Underwood’s Harry, by contrast, anxiously traffics the broad sweep of Paul Farnsworth’s debris-strewn set which relies upon Emma Chapman’s shadowy lighting to suggest the sinister depths toward which the intrigue descends.”
Matt Wolf, London Theatre
“Paul Farnsworth’s atmospheric, crumbling set and monochrome costumes, Emma Chapman’s expressive, shadowy lighting and Nunn’s restless staging evoke a woozy sense of destruction and destitution in war-scarred Vienna.”
Sarah Hemming, Financial Times
“Designed and dressed by Paul Farnsworth in various shades of black and white that is atmospherically lit by Emma Chapman, it is also an engaging treat to look at.”
Mark Shenton, Plays International