LIFT OFF
Bankside, London

London International Festival of Theatre commissioned Paul Burwell and me  to create a big event as a  launch for LIFT 1993. We negotiated the use of the empty former power station at Bankside to create an event using the chimney as a gigantic flame thrower and the flat roofs on each side as flaming drumworks.

Twenty-five drummers created powerful shadows up and down the chimney and welders and remote-controlled helicopters carried flares and flaming ropes on pulleys to the chimney on each side.

The whole work plugged into the energy that the power station had once created to conjure an intense urban song to the city.