Audiences prepare for a spellbinding ride as the sensational vampire musical Let the Right One In performs below the Apollo Theatre’s arresting refurbished ceiling cyclorama of a night sky
A compelling auditorium for a mesmerising story
The bare-bone components of theatre might be the actors and the script, but we have to admit productions would be significantly less exciting without a rousing visual environment. An inspiring setting has certainly been achieved by those involved with revamping the Apollo Theatre.
The refurbishment work to mend the caved in roof included a new temporary floor, which has been installed at the balcony level. Though the star of the revamp has to be the beautiful, large ceiling, which hangs majestically above the new floor. The ceiling, which represents a compellingly atmospheric moonlit night sky, was designed by Let the Right One In set designer, Christine Jones.
It was the set designer’s aim to create a full “immersive experience” taking the “world of the play into the auditorium.” Being a play about the mystical world of vampires, the new twilight ceiling certainly looks set to engross the audience deeper into the wonderfully eerie world of Let the Right One In.
An award-winning show
Directed by John Tiffany, Let the Right One In, won the South Bank Award for Best New Play in the UK, following its run at the Royal Court Theatre in 2013. The romantic horror is based on the 2004 novel by John Ajvide Lindqvist, which later became a cult Swedish movie. The intriguing plot is centred on two young misfits – Oskar and Eli. As the two kindred spirits form a friendship, a chilling take of love, loneliness and legend unravels.
This moving production is produced by the Canadian producer Marla Rubin, who became entranced by the 2008 film and immediately wanted to turn it into a play.
“I was taken back into my own childhood of isolation and longing for connection. I was mesmerised by it,” said Rubin. “It is a story that is presented in a sheep’s clothing of a vampire tale – but it is actually about the isolation of childhood and the longing for connection in this extraordinarily disconnected world we live in.”
Such a chilling subject matter that’s accompanied by moments of dark, graphic horror certainly promises to be set alight by such a chilling twilight ceiling that sweeps over the audiences’ heads.
Let the Right One In will run at the Apollo Theatre until 27 September, 2014. Buy tickets for the captivating show performed in an equally bewitching ambience here.
