LAST WEEK it was Istanbul, this week the
scene moves to the Old Bazaar in Cairo.
I'd sketched out some ideas but this morning when I
saw the backdrop we were going to paint over I did this
sketch. What was a palace kitchen became the basis for
this market; kitchen range and cupboards became market
stalls.
I
wasn't sure what to do about the rustic chimney going
up the middle of the original backdrop. I thought it
might become a kind of roof but then realised that as
we're in Cairo it really ought to be a Sphinx.
That plinth, right in the centre of the
scene was crying out to have something carved on it
- heiroglyphics? I decided to make the setting absolutely
obvious by writing
'M A R K E T'
On it in big bas-relief letters. 'BAZAAR'
or 'SOUK' might have been more accurate but 'MARKET'
seemed to me to be the right one.
While I was painting David the joiner was busy
assembling the Mighty Roc. He and Frank (the Sultan
of Instanbul) painted in the outline I'd painted
in orange flourescent paint last week. As Grant
and Daniel had just got the ultra-violet tubes
connected we were able to briefly try it on stage.
Wow! It's like something from another world, this
giant 8 feet tall bird of paradise with flapping
wings glowing in orange, yellow, pink, green and
blue; it's so effective you'd think that it was
a neon sign rather than paint on hardboard. |
 |
Wonderful way to end the first half of
the pantomime. Can't wait to see it on the night. 
