adele: a matter of design

Timeless, sophisticated and spacious - the stage workof prolific and versatile designer Es Devlin OBE forAdele’s first ever arena tour creates an intimate, almosthypnotic atmosphere, in which a refreshing wash-cycleof emotions takes place via the 27-year old’suniversally captivating songs and gritty, witty banter.

Devlin worked in close collaboration with Adele herself,and alongside world-renowned lighting designers PatrickWoodroffe and Adam Bassett of Woodroffe BassettDesign and award-winning video content designer LukeHalls of Treatment Studio. Together, they created astriking and theatrical layer-cake of performance,content, i-mag and light on a truly epic scale.

It’s no secret that 25 is the only major tour Adele planson doing, and that once it’s done she has chosen todedicate herself to being a full-time mum. As a result, itwas a crucial part of the design brief that in years tocome, her arena tour was something she would be ableto look back upon with pride. With an eye on the bigger

picture, production manager Richard Young points out:“This show’s success is all about the attention to detail.Every element is clean, the edges are perfectly straightand the whites are super-white. Everything has to movein one clean gesture. To me it’s more like an artinstallation than anything else.”

With no dancers, no big numbers or statement costumechanges, Devlin’s response to the brief is a modern-dayclassic. Super chic, understated and uncluttered, themain stage features a titanic-sized, prow-shaped lightbox, which frames a similarly jutting A-stage floor. It alsoprovides the runners for two huge mesh projectionsurfaces that glide imperceptibly in and out, as and whenrequired. “The team executes a small number of gagsextremely well,” continues Young. “Between themthey’ve delivered a filmic, close to TV-quality show in anarena. This has brought its own challenges, including theneed for millimetre-precise camera positions and anability to understand the director’s shot through the backand the ambient light levels. When you’re dealing with

Adele : A MatA conversation with Adele is a matter of design. Sarah Rushton-Read reports . . .Performance photography by Ralph Larmann

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projection on this scale and you want to be subtle, thefiner details matter so much more.”

Both the main stage and the second diamond shaped B-stage are aesthetically connected by gauze projectionsurfaces on to which a mix of live i-mag and pre-recorded content is broadcast. This provides the mainvehicle by which Devlin reveals and hides the variousfacets of Adele’s personality and/or the differentnarratives of her songs. It is also the way that intimacybetween Adele and her audience is emphasised orwithdrawn. Sometimes Adele is behind the gauzes,sometimes in front, sometimes there is a projection infront of her and/or a video image on the LED screenbehind her.

Throughout the show, regardless of where Adele is in thearena, the audience attention is sharply focused on her.Echoing the styling of her album artwork, the contentembraces and underscores Adele’s distinctive andrecognisable style: sweeping black eyeliner, gorgeously

styled hair, hollowed cheeks, plump glossy lips,sparkling sophisticated gown and the signatureexpressive hands.

Prior to the tour Devlin had worked on a number of liveand TV projects with Adele, including slots at theGrammys and the BRITs. She also designed a show forthe artist at Radio City Music Hall, New York, whichstraddled both the TV and concert mediums and fromwhich much of the current tour design evolved.

“My process was to try and understand Adele’scharacter and create an environment that she would bemost comfortable in,” explains Devlin.

At first glance the result strikes as visually minimalist, butthat minimalism belies a more complex concept, asDevlin explains: “I wanted to provide a clean architecturefor Adele’s character and her voice, which are twoentirely different things. I felt I needed to present her onfresh, large surfaces. She says herself that she’s two

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different people, she’s the voice and then she’s Adele theindividual. This is true of most artists but with Adele it’smore overt. She’s prepared to share the gap between thesuperstar persona she inhabits when she’s singing andthe real her when she’s not. Because she’s so explicitabout it, I made it part of the declaration of the show anda lot of my focus was then on ‘how do I reveal her?’”

Indeed, the reveal instigates from the moment theaudience walks in. The huge A-stage screens are filledwith a projection of Adele with her eyes closed and at firstyou think it is a still photograph but you soon becomeaware that it’s actually video: “I wanted to open with a Maria Callas diva-style persona on stage and projectedon the screens. Not until three songs in did I want Adele tospeak, but when she did I knew she would reveal thatsassy, funny lady everyone loves and, in the process,puncture the diva balloon.”

Devlin says a lot of work went into the exact timing of theblinks during the first song. “We wanted to convey a sense of ‘here’s the poster of the character and herecomes the character’. Then they meet, and she’s in front

of her own poster. It’s here that she tells us about whereshe originates from, singing Hometown which featuresaerial views of London and also of each city theproduction tours to on the backdrop. Only on the thirdsong does she reveal her true self. Now you’ve got her,she’s being relayed live and direct to you. It’s a delayedgratification.”

The stage framing brings a striking focus to the show,Adele’s relationship to the audience and the intimacy levelbetween them. “When she’s outside she’s her usualwarm, witty, outgoing self and yet from inside theatmosphere reveals a generous grandeur with herextravagant band/orchestra,” explains Devlin. “Thephilosophy is to reveal and conceal in equal measure. I’veloved the visual depth that can be created using the LEDscreen backdrop and the projection on the front gauze.Playing with the brightness level of LED screen against thelevels of lighting and the projection on the gauzes hasgiven us a fascinating palette to work with.”

Devlin says she also wanted to avoid the notion ofintroducing the artist to the audience via two i-mag

Designer Es Devlin

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screens either side of the stage: “To me it’s counter productive and itmakes the artist peripheral to their own show. This paradigm seemsto have grown out of sound design in concert touring. Because thereare always two speakers, people feel there should be two screens. It doesn’t make sense, because most members of the audience cansee both screens regardless of where they are sitting. My aim was tohave the audience focus on Adele central to where she’s playing, ifshe’s on the B-stage then the audience should be focusing on her,albeit through an image of her on the gauze screens whennecessary.”

There are no sharp edges or jarring moments on this show: everythingfrom the movement in and out of the gauze screen on A-stage to thetransitions between songs and Adele’s two sharply contrastingpersonas is smooth, practised and discrete. The show is seductive,immersive and consuming but at the same time features some stand-out moments, such as the slow searchlight effect over theaudience during Skyfall, the stunning blend of content by Luke Hallswith the live i-mag images that are projected onto the front gauze, thestrong backlight that creates silhouettes of Adele and her band on thefront gauzes and Woodroffe’s beautiful, high-contrast key lightingwhich brings a film noir, movie star quality to the projected andbroadcast images of Adele’s beautifully expressive face and hands.

Considering Adele is just 27 years old and has only done a couple oftours in her life, Woodroffe says she was explicit in what she wanted.“She may not have been sure how that would be characterised interms of design, but she’s clear about who she is and how she wantsto portray herself,” he explains. “This early dialogue, understandingwhat the artist expects and wants, is more important to me than theshape of the stage or what colour the lights are going to be.

“Adele was adamant that she didn’t want a big, bright, colourful, pop-y show,” he continues. “We began with the premise of the show

being an entirely white light show. Apart from one very brightsaturated red cue, we pretty much stuck to that.”

One very helpful part of the process was the live show at Radio CityMusical Hall, filmed by NBC. “We staged the huge production withjust two days’ rehearsal - that was a mad thing to do!” laughsWoodroffe. “Nevertheless, this experience meant we went intorehearsal at Wembley in January with a clear idea of the designaesthetic and how bold or restrained we could be. It wasn’t toocomplicated as we were all on the same page. That’s not always thecase. It can take time to discover what each of the other designerswants and believe me, it’s not always the same!”

Woodroffe and Bassett’s biggest challenge was to accommodate theconsiderable projection and LED screen content, the use of gauzescreens and of course two separate stages, while lighting Adeleconsistently for camera and to her exacting instruction.

As with all Woodroffe’s designs, 25 is a carefully and accuratelyfocused show - the transitions between cues are masterfully subtleand precise. Every number is a little jewel, every song is separate andindividual, yet as a catalogue of work the whole show hangsbeautifully together, restrained but not repetitive.

“My main concern - particularly for Adele - is ensuring she looks thebest she can,” states Woodroffe. “She’s an amazing looking womanand her face is incredibly photogenic. Our job is to style andbalance light for the cameras in the most beautiful way possible. It’sa craft to light for camera. During the BRITs we were lucky to workclosely with TV lighting director Al Gurdon. I also worked with AllenBranton, and Robert Dickinson on The Grammys. All are brilliantlighting designers who deeply understand lighting for film and TVand I learned a lot.”

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It goes without saying that this show is designed to look exquisite oncamera. For each song Adele barely moves: “We use two followspotson her face, very delicately just to bring up a level or soften thepicture, but in general we rely on front key light. Adele has anamazing make-up artist, Michael Ashton, and we always work closelywith him. A lot of the live camera shots are in black and white, whichmeans we can achieve high contrast between the shape of her faceand the way her hair frames her face, echoing the design of heralbum covers.”

Adele’s raw and personal catalogue is beautifully conveyed throughHalls’ multi-layered, sometimes blurry, often surreal visuals that aremore photographic than filmic. Halls commissioned threephotographers to shoot abstract slow-motion content, using obliqueangles. “I decided on photographers because I wanted a particularlook. We used Sony FS7s - the cheapest slow motion camera youcan get, which allowed us to shoot more slow motion than you wouldbe able to with a more expensive rig - and, by making things slightlyblurred, they evoked a half-remembered idea of a place.”

However, Halls says it was testing to build compelling stories aroundthe songs when their subject is so intimate. “I wanted the images toevoke the right atmosphere without necessarily being explicit in termsof telling a story. Adele’s music is about emotional memories, sovisually we wanted to make something that conjured that. We wantedto make it multi-layered. There’s never just one story happening andeach interacts and influences the other.”

Halls explains that coordinating the inter-play between the projection,the downstage gauze, i-mag and the LED backdrop upstage couldalso be challenging. The images had to work together while at thesame time enable Woodroffe to light through the gauzes. Given thatmost of his rig was upstage of the screens, this was a complex task.

“It was both interesting and a steep learning curve to play withgauzes on such a huge scale,” Halls says. “It’s not easy to scaletheatrical techniques up to arena-level and decide when to reveal theband, and when to take them away. We’ve learnt a lot about layeringon a grand scale, what works and what doesn’t. Normally peoplelayer imagery on one surface or screen. In this show we’re layering

People, from top:

Video content designer Luke Halls of Treatment Studio.

Lighting director and programmer Roland Greil.

Lighting designers Adam Bassett (left) and Patrick Woodroffe.

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gauze with LED screen and lighting and then using livecamera feeds to layer on top. Es coined the term ‘i-magsoup’! Everything was broken across the surfaces andthat was interesting, but it could get messy. The moredesigned and the more intentional it got, the more it gaveperspective in the lens. That language took time to figureout.”

Halls also had to consider the live cameras: “Camerasare intrinsic to this show. We know how difficult camerawork can be in the live arena environment, however weinvested heavily in working with both Patrick and videodirector, Matt Askem, on lighting and camera shots toensure Adele looked her best - she would accept nothingless. What emerged was how crucial camera positioningis to the look and it wasn’t going to be something thatcould be messed around with, it had to be right.”

Askem is therefore client-focused and has worked asAdele’s champion throughout. “The show design istechnically simple for video, but that simplicity has beenhard to deliver in some instances, particularly with theunforgiving LED screen. Adele has been paramount indriving the creative so it’s not been a case of me trying toreinvent any wheels. She doesn’t like fussy pictures;she’s a big fan of black and white and she wants toachieve that dead central full-face look, which is hard inan arena environment, primarily because the camerasare generally all too far away to deliver that look on a screen of that size and quality. It’s also awkward when I want to position cameras that will mess up all thoselovely, clean sightlines. Nevertheless, when it’s necessaryto achieve what’s required I’ve had to insist on somepositions - in most cases I’ve prevailed, in one I haven’t!”

Likewise, Adele doesn’t like cutting between pictures andwould prefer Askem to sit on a shot for a whole song:“This is something I try to achieve in television. The moreshows I’ve done with Adele, the better my anticipation.She understands, with the songs on the B-stageparticularly, that she has to play to one side of the houseand then the other.”

“The show was rehearsed as one might rehearse anopera,” says Woodroffe: “We had disciplined lighting,camera and video sessions. We were all prepared to do

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whatever it took to get it right, everything wasdone with consideration, and that’s reflectedin the show.”

Whether it’s the focus or the timing,triggering or execution of a cue, lightingdirector and programmer Roland Greilplotted the show with meticulous attention todetail. “It’s a completely manual show,” heexplains. “We try to avoid timecode for thecueing, so I broke down the musicalstructure of each of her songs. I like to knowbefore rehearsals that I’ve got all thepossible cue points. In the end we lost 60 or70% of those and worked closely with thevideo cue points. While we were rehearsingwe refined the show every day, pre-emptingthe cue by just two seconds or a millisecond,which could make a big difference in thetransitions. The key was not to overwhelmher presence, to always keep her in centralfocus. Apart from the last song, she reallystays within an area of four by four metres,so we constantly worked the detail and whenit came to fixture choice the most importantthing was versatility in terms of colour andbrightness.”

Young, who had the unenviable job of havingto decide how the budget might liberate orconstrain the designers, concludes: “There’sdefinitely things I’ve deliberated andhindsight tells me that the right decision was

made. Take the A-stage lightbox: in versionone we discussed having stretch fabric, but I was concerned that we would not be ableto tour and keep it clean. We then went downthe route of having one with plastic panels.That was prototyped, built and delivered, butwhen it got here it wasn’t right, so we wentback to stretch fabric. Every design elementhas demanded a process to arrive at whatwe wanted. It’s been a nice feeling that noteverybody’s got all the answers and while wedon’t go into things blindly, it’s good to takea voyage of discovery every now and again.”

There is no doubt that Devlin’s mission tounderstand Adele and find a way to expressher multi-faceted personality and talents bylayering content and broadcast mediumshas created the space and the atmosphereto bring Adele’s songs to vibrant, multi-dimensional life. Diva, stand-up comic,people’s friend, mother, broken-heartedteen, nervous performer, strong woman -Adele is all these things and so much more.Her themes and her personality, the issuesand feelings she expresses resonate witheach and every member of the audience inone wonderful evening of song and banter.

I have no doubt at all that when Adele is oldand grey she will look back at a recording ofthis show and see a timeless performanceshe can and should be extremely proud of.


adele: a matter of design

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