BONNIE & CLYDE PROJECTION FOR A RUNAWAY SUCCESS 

BONNIE & CLYDE PROJECTION FOR A RUNAWAY SUCCESS 

"This is an excellent production firing on all cylinders." 
✰✰✰✰ – Whatsonstage 
THE ARTS THEATRE, WEST END LONDON, APRIL 2022 
Set in Texas, America during the era of the Great Depression the story follows Bonnie Parker and Clyde Barrow who shot to fame as America’s most renowned folk heroes and the worst nightmare of the Texas law enforcement. 
A concert production of Bonnie and Clyde took place at at Drury Lane earlier in the year was extremely well recieved and the team wanted to elevate the fully staged production with an extended set including video, adding a graphical edge and a grunge element to the musical. 
 
The visual language for the projection was inspired by 1930s WANTED posters and used an elemental two-toned graphic style to support location and contextualise the infamous couple’s story within the political climate of the Great Depression. Some passages of narrative were also delivered purely through stylised projection which involved a shoot with the cast to create silhouette content of of the actors. 
One of the most dramatic of moments within the design is perhaps when Clyde murders a police officer at their infamous hideout in Joplin. In this version, he experiences a flashback and sees his childhood self which prompts him to to realise how he has evolved as a person with his dreams of Al Capone style infamy starting to unravel before him. 
"It is superbly staged and brilliantly performed" 
Simon Button, Attitude 
The Arts theatre is a very confined and intimate space and initially the design included an a LED wall, but in discission with Nina the team this did not lend itself to the performance space or and gritty nature and look of the musical.  
 
Drawing on the gorgeous paint treatment of the set, teamed with the projection aspect of the video design it gave the piece the desired aged tobacco-stained look. Projection also lends itself well to shifting time and location very easily, making for very seamless scene changes. Blackouts soon became choreographed scene changes aiding the flow of the whirlwind story. 
The structure of the American flag was an integral part of the video design as it seemed to Nina to represent Bonnie and Clyde’s personalities and subtly these were encompassed in the design; the stripes on the flag representing a motif of encarceration that followed Clyde’s imprisonment from a young age and his trouble with law enforcement and the stars lending themselves to the fame that Bonnie was seeking through her dreams of Hollywood. Through these opposing personalities, an overarching idea is seeded relating to how people seek fame and escape in America: either through fame or infamy. 
 
The flag also lends itself well as a graphical to hint at the fragility of the American dream. At the top of Act two, ‘Made in America’ – as song that describes the hardships of the great depression – is performed to projected propaganda posters from the era combined with graphical twists on the flag motif. The use of torn posters combined with Zoe Spurr’s sharp and unforgiving lighting supported the irony being described in the lyrics of America as a places that at once caimed to offer the greatest lifestyle in the world against the relaity of soup kitchens and extreme poverty. Bonnie and Clyde were products of this political background, desperate for escape and their own adventure. 
"The story introduces a fallen America where breadlines are the norm and the judicial system is as flawed as it is dangerous. Winston builds on these themes with subtle hints throughout, giving in to a no-nonsense approach during." 
Made in America 
“It’s during this number that Nina Dunn‘s projections make a statement […]. A line-up of various firearms expands upwards to form the stripes of the Star-Spangled Banner, echoing a fundamental and topical issue.” 
★★★★ Broadway World 
 
 
 
 
 
Director: Nick Winston 
Musical Director: Katy Richardson 
Set & Costume Designer: Phillip Witcomb 
Sound Designer: Tom Marshall 
Lighting Designer: Zoe Spurr 
Wig Design: Darren Ware 
Projection Content, Video design & art direction: Nina Dunn 
Content Team: Matthew Brown, Libby Ward, Virginie Serneels, Cheng Keng, Laura Salmi 
Production Engineer/System Design: Harrison Cooke 
Video Programmer: Lauren Kunicki 
Production Engineer: Jason Hunter 
Lighting/Video HOD: Tom Fitch 
 
Photography credits @theotherrichard – Richard Davenport 
The show won the WhatsonStage Award for Best new Musical and has been nominated for 18 BroadwayWorld UK awards with the video design winning in that category. Bonnie & Clyde returns to thrill its cult audience in a limited West End engagement at the Garrick Theatre from March 2023 
 
BEST VIDEO DESIGN OF A NEW PRODUCTION OF A PLAY OR MUSICAL 
 
Winner - Nina Dunn - BONNIE & CLYDE - Arts Theatre 
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