ABSTRACT
The docks at Saint-Nazaire, with its paraphenalia of grain elevators, mobile cranes, swingbridges, turnbridges and drawbridges, house the infamous and indestructible submarine pens which remain as a haunting reminder of the war. The light sequence is controlled by a bank of sensors that monitor occupancy of the building which causes the neon-lit barrel roof to differentially shimmer, throb and ripple in response to backstage and front of house activity. When the theatre is fully operational and a production is on stage, the roof is fully animated – pulsing like a person breathing; when there is no performance, the neon tubes ripple into waves that sweep up and over the roof. When the building is empty, the roof goes to sleep, save for two lower lines of neon that remain lit to glow like embers. However, deep into the night, the presence of a nightwatchman, with a wave of his arm, can, momentarily, reawaken and reactivate the chromatic display.
