Frost Nixon - Broadway |
| "Christopher Oram’s set and Neil Austin’s terrific lighting help keep the play fast and fluid." |
| Ben Brantley - New York Times |
Dying for It |
| "The designer uses the Almeida's beautifully curved back wall to create a dingy, over-populated stairwell lit, paradoxically, with expressive shadows by Neil Austin" |
| David Benedict - Variety |
John Gabriel Borkman |
| "When the scene moves outside, any sense of escape is overshadowed by the dangerously hostile Nordic weather. A carpet of pristine snow is rolled out whilst the lighting turns stark and flurries of frozen blizzard falls." |
| Charlotte Loveridge - CurtainUp.com |
| "Then, in a visual coup igniting the final scene, the back wall flies out revealing a vast carpet of snow edged with tall pines as Neil Austin's hard white moonlight illuminates everyone's crushed hopes. The thrillingly fulfilled ambition of the moment is typical of Michael Grandage's production" |
| David Benedict - Variety |
Ghosts |
| "Neil Austin's lighting design and Olly Fox's plaintive violin theme add to the sense of circumambient gloom" |
| Michael Billington - The Guardian |
| "Lez Brotherston's design, finely lit by Neil Austin" |
| Susannah Clapp - The Observer |
Much Ado About Nothing |
| "Elliott literally heats up the atmosphere by setting everything in 1950s Cuba. This isn't mere fancy. The play is crucially about men who are soldiers. Ideas about hierarchy and service are easily delineated as the men maneuver themselves in and out of uniform in lighting designer Neil Austin's hot haze of a Cuban day." |
| David Benedict - Variety |
Don Juan in Soho |
| "The strength of this extraordinarily cohesive production is made manifest in its quietest moment. In what turns out to be the calm before the thematic storm where the statue comes shockingly, and brilliantly, to life, Ifans and Wight gaze up at the stars. Neil Austin's high-angled light picks their faces out of a cold night sky, and the spell of their sudden wonder is cast across the entire auditorium. That this charged, still moment resonates so powerfully is a tribute to the world conjured by a captivating show." |
| David Benedict - Variety |
| "Christopher Oram's beautiful design, and Neil Austin's lighting, get it right: in shades of grey swept by a shimmering silver curtain, and with the white stone statue looming out of the darkness (finally, wittily pedalling Don Juan towards his death on a fairy-lit rickshaw), they create a fascinating, glimmering, smutty faubourg" |
| Susannah Clapp - The Observer |
Therese Raquin |
| "[Marianne Elliot's] production....is a miracle of sound and light, music and movement." |
| Michael Billington - The Guardian |
| "[Marianne Elliot's] production....is a miracle of sound and light, music and movement." |
| Michael Billington - The Guardian |
| "[Marianne Elliot's] production....is a miracle of sound and light, music and movement." |
| Michael Billington - The Guardian |
| "[Marianne Elliot's] production....is a miracle of sound and light, music and movement." |
| Michael Billington - The Guardian |
| "[Marianne Elliot's] production....is a miracle of sound and light, music and movement." |
| Michael Billington - The Guardian |
| "[Marianne Elliot's] production....is a miracle of sound and light, music and movement." |
| Michael Billington - The Guardian |
| "[Marianne Elliot's] production....is a miracle of sound and light, music and movement." |
| Michael Billington - The Guardian |
| "[Marianne Elliot's] production....is a miracle of sound and light, music and movement." |
| Michael Billington - The Guardian |
| "Lighting Designer Neil Austin swathes the place in spooky twilight and shadows." |
| Nicholas de Jongh - Evening Standard |
| "Hildegard Bechtler's set, which is perfectly complemented by Neil Austin's atmospheric lighting, is an impressive realisation of the Raquin household." |
| David Gavan - ICSouthLondon.co.uk |
| "Marianne Elliott's direction blends a naturalistic take on the play with flourishes of a more fantastical nature, while Neil Austin's lighting is always a subtle reflection of the mood: a single lamp for the introspective washing scene; a fire-lit red wash in the aftermath of murder." |
| - London Theatre Guide |
| "It’s brilliantly under-lit by Neil Austin (if that’s not a contradiction in terms) and intensely atmospheric. ...Chiaroscuro, moody music and more than a touch of expressionist lighting." |
| - West End Whingers |
| "Elliott brings tremendous theatrical flare to the staging. There's a sensuous scene between the first two acts where Thérèse silently washes herself and, in the second half, a long cinematic nightmare sequence depicting the mother of all bad nights. There's much painterly detail throughout. Hildegard Bechtler's dingy apartment and Neil Austin's atmospheric lighting provide the backdrop for some stunning pictures, although at times, the Lyttelton space feels a little too large for this intimate breakdown of two people tearing each other apart." |
| Simon Thomas - MusicOMH.com |
| "one intends no disrespect to Elliott or her able cast, headed by Charlotte Emmerson and an impressively impassioned Ben Daniels, to point out that to some extent they're all pawns within a piece of Total Theatre that makes equal stars of Neil Austin's shadowy lighting, Hildegard Bechtler's forbiddingly grey set, and a soundscape from Christopher Sheet that tightens the vice on two central characters whose ostensibly liberating act of violence in fact ends up sealing their doom." |
| Matt Wolf - Theatre.com |
| " with the assistance of a brilliant design team that includes Hildegard Bechtler (sets) and Neil Austin (lighting), Ms. Elliott goes beyond anthropological realism to achieve a somber visual poetry that summons the working-class portraits of Degas. (This painterly quality is especially haunting in the scene where Thérèse bathes herself after the murder of her husband and in the subsequent series of tableaus of the adulterous lovers in stages of guilt-tortured sleeplessness.)
More than any narrative production I can think of, “Thérèse Raquin” opens a resonant dialogue in your mind between theater and a style of painting. The specificity of the images onstage, down to the curve of a shoulder or slope of a back, inspires you to think anew about the implicit interior lives suggested by the work of portraitists in the age of Zola (a man who fraternized with painters). “Thérèse Raquin” makes you want to hop a Paris-bound train and hit the Musée d’Orsay to continue the conversation." |
| Ben Brantley - New York Times |
The Cryptogram |
| "Neil Austin's lighting reveals all three characters reflected murkily in the black-lacquered back wall. It's a perfectly ghostly image that captures the spirit of this flawed but frightening play." |
| David Benedict - Variety |
The Seafarer |
| "[Karl Johnson's Sharky] Ablaze with anger and fear, looking at once haunted and harried, frightened and bemused he emerges from the knife-edge game, metaphorically and actually touched by sunlight." |
| Nicholas de Jongh - Evening Standard |
Tom and Viv |
| "This chamber piece has a stark, neat structure. It is fluidly staged, with just a few chairs and pools of light on a parquet floor." |
| Kate Bassett - Independent on Sunday |
Frost/Nixon |
| "Neil Austin's lighting allows audiences to see not just the two combatants etched dramatically out of darkness but also their live TV selves splashed across '70s-style TV sets" |
| David Benedict - Variety |
| "The set uses a backdrop of five by five monitors to show close ups... Neil Austin's lighting provides excitement and the play is broken up dynamically with lots of side scenes." |
| Lizzie Loveridge - Curtain Up |
Love Counts |
| "Neil Austin’s lighting is crucial, the numbers that variously affect the lives of the protagonists not only chalked up on the walls but suspended in fluorescent tubes of red and blue." |
| David Gutmna - The Stage |
The Canterville Ghost |
| "...Neil Austin delivers some splendid Lighting Effects." |
| Rupert Christiansen - Mail on Sunday |
The Taming of the Shrew |
| "...Padua sprinkled with marble statues by designer Hannah Clark and beautifully backlit by Neil Austin." |
| Dominic Cavendish - Daily Telegraph |
| "Slick, witty and expertly-lit," |
| Robin Markwell - BBC Online |
| "...devilish lighting and the frenetic soundtrack...all help to give the production bite and edge." |
| Helen Reid - Bristol Evening Post |
Romeo & Juliet |
| "...wonderful balmy lighting." |
| - Radio 4 Saturday Review |
| "...there’s much to enjoy in Meckler’s staging, which ...is beautifully and imaginatively done, aided by the designs of Katrina Lindsay and the beguiling lighting of Neil Austin." |
| Pete Wood - What's On Stage.com |
| "The entire ensemble, Meckler's direction, Katrina's Lindsay's design, Neil Austin's lighting and Ilona Sekacz' music combine to produce a powerful and moving version of what is probably the best known play in the English language" |
| Peter Lathan - British Theatre Guide |
The Long, the Short and the Tall |
| "Lighting designer Neil Austin has also excelled himself again, capturing the passage from dawn, through dusk and into darkness in the rays that stream through the boards of the hut and are cut up by the humidity inside." |
| Chris Ingold - MusicOMH.com |
Comfort me with Apples |
| "Such a bald encapsulation of Miss Leyshon's themes gives little idea of the atmospheric power and imagination with which they are conveyed in Lucy Bailey's production. No director makes the stage a more thrilling place than the expressionistic Miss Bailey - with a little help from her designers." |
| Nicholas de Jongh - Evening Standard |
Tamburlaine |
| "David Farr's direction also earns Tamburlaine its place in the Barbican's Young Genius season. The aesthetic is both stirringly simple and ravishingly beautiful, as Ti Green's minimal set is sumptuously lit by Neil Austin. When it is asserted that Tamburlaine's looks "do menace heaven" we see Hicks illuminated from below in a rich sunset gold, as if already gilded by the immortality his character so clearly craves." |
| Rachel Halliburton - Time Out |
| "David Farr's direction also earns Tamburlaine its place in the Barbican's Young Genius season. The aesthetic is both stirringly simple and ravishingly beautiful, as Ti Green's minimal set is sumptuously lit by Neil Austin. When it is asserted that Tamburlaine's looks "do menace heaven" we see Hicks illuminated from below in a rich sunset gold, as if already gilded by the immortality his character so clearly craves." |
| Rachel Halliburton - Time Out |
| "David Farr's direction also earns Tamburlaine its place in the Barbican's Young Genius season. The aesthetic is both stirringly simple and ravishingly beautiful, as Ti Green's minimal set is sumptuously lit by Neil Austin. When it is asserted that Tamburlaine's looks "do menace heaven" we see Hicks illuminated from below in a rich sunset gold, as if already gilded by the immortality his character so clearly craves." |
| Rachel Halliburton - Time Out |
| "David Farr's direction also earns Tamburlaine its place in the Barbican's Young Genius season. The aesthetic is both stirringly simple and ravishingly beautiful, as Ti Green's minimal set is sumptuously lit by Neil Austin. When it is asserted that Tamburlaine's looks "do menace heaven" we see Hicks illuminated from below in a rich sunset gold, as if already gilded by the immortality his character so clearly craves." |
| Rachel Halliburton - Time Out |
| "David Farr's direction also earns Tamburlaine its place in the Barbican's Young Genius season. The aesthetic is both stirringly simple and ravishingly beautiful, as Ti Green's minimal set is sumptuously lit by Neil Austin. When it is asserted that Tamburlaine's looks "do menace heaven" we see Hicks illuminated from below in a rich sunset gold, as if already gilded by the immortality his character so clearly craves." |
| Rachel Halliburton - Time Out |
| "David Farr's direction also earns Tamburlaine its place in the Barbican's Young Genius season. The aesthetic is both stirringly simple and ravishingly beautiful, as Ti Green's minimal set is sumptuously lit by Neil Austin. When it is asserted that Tamburlaine's looks "do menace heaven" we see Hicks illuminated from below in a rich sunset gold, as if already gilded by the immortality his character so clearly craves." |
| Rachel Halliburton - Time Out |
| "David Farr's direction also earns Tamburlaine its place in the Barbican's Young Genius season. The aesthetic is both stirringly simple and ravishingly beautiful, as Ti Green's minimal set is sumptuously lit by Neil Austin. When it is asserted that Tamburlaine's looks "do menace heaven" we see Hicks illuminated from below in a rich sunset gold, as if already gilded by the immortality his character so clearly craves." |
| Rachel Halliburton - Time Out |
| "David Farr's direction also earns Tamburlaine its place in the Barbican's Young Genius season. The aesthetic is both stirringly simple and ravishingly beautiful, as Ti Green's minimal set is sumptuously lit by Neil Austin. When it is asserted that Tamburlaine's looks "do menace heaven" we see Hicks illuminated from below in a rich sunset gold, as if already gilded by the immortality his character so clearly craves." |
| Rachel Halliburton - Time Out |
| "David Farr's direction also earns Tamburlaine its place in the Barbican's Young Genius season. The aesthetic is both stirringly simple and ravishingly beautiful, as Ti Green's minimal set is sumptuously lit by Neil Austin. When it is asserted that Tamburlaine's looks "do menace heaven" we see Hicks illuminated from below in a rich sunset gold, as if already gilded by the immortality his character so clearly craves." |
| Rachel Halliburton - Time Out |
Much Ado About Nothing |
| "Rourke's production boasts a beautiful set by Giles Cadle imaginatively lit by Neil Austin. We are in a russet-stoned Mediterranean courtyard where washing is hung out to dry, wheelbarrows evoke bosky arbours and where the air is bathed in a smoky orange light." |
| Michael Billington - The Guardian |
| "a Mediterranean Courtyard of russet terracotta tiles bathed in mellow light" |
| Paul Taylor - The Independent |
| "Rourke's production is wistful and humourous. The caustic couple mellow in a sun-washed Messina created by Giles Cadle's design and Neil Austin's Lighting." |
| - |
| "The lighting is subtle, but with such absolute precision of tone that it alone carries your imagination to the setting of each scene." |
| Benjamin Hazell - Steel Press |
| "The design by Giles Cadle is handsome and Neil Austin's lighting adds atmosphere" |
| John Highfield - The Stage |
| "It's set in something that might be an italian villa - an impressive design by Giles Cadle, beautifully lit by Neil Austin." |
| John Highfield - Sheffield Star |
| "Set on an expertly lit stage that has all the ambience of a Mediterranean village piazza, the atmosphere is one of brooding tragedy, recalling Lorca." |
| - www.musicOMH.com |
The Found Man |
| "Director, Philip Wilson has designed the sparest of sets and asked excellent lighting designer Neil Austin to minimise the illumination on the wooden stage. This creates a haunting effect that matches the subject matter." |
| Philip FIsher - British Theatre Guide |
| "In stark contrast the pale white lighting gives the forces of darkness at work. " |
| Lynne Walker - The Independent |
Henry IV pt.1 |
| "Nicholas Hytner's production, with a powerfully atmospheric set by Mark Thompson and very good lighting by Neil Austin..." |
| Paul Webb - LastMinute.com |
| "Hytner employs Mark Thompson's superbly spare set and Neil Austin's sharply specific lighting to terrific cinematic effect, filling the frame as a filmmaker." |
| Ray Bennet - Hollywood Reporter |
|
"Nicholas Hytner's new National Theatre production isn't perfect, but I've encountered none so interesting. Mark Thompson places the action on a wooden central avenue between "bare ruin'd quires". Neil Austin's lighting is devoid of mellowness: our feeling is that we and the plays are surrounded by darkness." |
| Alastair Macaulay - Financial Times |
Rhapsody |
| "Curtis's backdrop shows a stormy-pink Turner sky that varies in broodiness with Neil Austin's lighting" |
| Jenny Gilbert - The Independent |
| "The much-loved slow section, which belonged to the two leads, was exquisitely danced and, as with the rest of the ballet, Jessica Curtis’ designs and Neil Austin’s lighting added greatly to Rakhmaninov’s atmospheric score." |
| Paul Webb - Last Minute.com |
| "Jessica Curtis's new backdrop shows a changeable sky, its clouds lit in sunset reds and golds." |
| Zoe Anderson - Independent on Sunday |
Insignificance |
| "The lighting on the stage is creatively organised by lighting designer Neil Austin, with twinkling lights above the bedroom portraying the night sky. Neon lights from the city street shine through the window and the hotel room itself is subtly lit, representing the safe interior." |
| - BA Magazine |
Macbeth |
| "Christopher Oram’s design offers a Dunsinane of anthracite walls... and an atmosphere of haunted, candle-lit gloom. In a sole concession to technical effect, the paved performing space is cleverly lit by Neil Austin to create a flickering dry ice circle for the pale, ageing Weird Sisters." |
| John Thaxter - The Stage |
Chorus! |
| "The lush red and black setting, reminiscent of music hall, and the imaginative costumes are designed by Niki Turner. The atmospheric lighting is the work of Neil Austin" |
| Jon Halliday - The Stage |
Julius Caesar |
| "They are complemented by Rachel Pickup's anguished Portia, the aural bravura of Martin Slavin's sound design and Neil Austin's pinpoint lighting." |
| Michael Billington - The Guardian |
The Soldier\'s Tale |
| "Neil Austin's smoochy lighting and Lez Brotherston's design spectacularly transform the Linbury into a faded art-nouveau cabaret club. The candlelit cafe tables that seat part of the audience intensify the sense of sardonic intimacy that has always lain at the heart of this mock morality play." |
| Jenny Gilbert - The Independent |
Henry IV (Pirandello) |
| " Christopher Oram’s palatial classical columns, later coloured by the theatricality of a red-plush curtain, are enhanced by Neil Austin’s mellow lighting" |
| Timothy Ramsden - Reviews Gate |
Still Life |
| " Beautiful and evocative lighting design by Neil Austin leant a sepia look to Still Life" |
| - Live Magazine |
Wind in the Willows |
| ...Neil Austin's lighting is beautifully toned. |
| Kevin Berry - The Stage |
| ...ingenious sets by [Dick] Bird, ravishingly lit in shades of gold, silver
and green by Neil Austin... |
| Sam Marlowe - The Times |
After Miss Julie |
| Special Mention is owed Neil Austin's lighting, in which daybreak is almost
palpable.
|
| Matt Wolf - Variety |
True West |
| A highly enjoyable evening out from a fantastic production. Strong script, stunning set and lighting, fantastic cast, and brilliant direction/staging...it’s everything you could ever wish for… |
| Ben Furness - nowt2do.com |
Othello |
| The sound, designed by Adam Cork, gives the production a big movie feel and enhances the action and Neil Austin's lighting is very atmospheric.
|
| Martin Borley - BBCi |
Sharon\'s Grave |
| "[the set's] darkly textured walls gave it a convincing eeriness, which was very effectively brought out by the lighting of Neil Austin"
|
| - Drama League of Ireland |
Caligula |
| Grandage's production qualities are extremely high. The design by Christopher Oram is very simple and with sympathetic lighting from Neil Austin achieves levels of great beauty. This peaks as the narcissistic hero lifts a full-length mirror from a pool of water and revolves around the stage looking at himself like a lover. |
| Philip Fisher - The British Theatre Guide |
| Christopher Oram's design aesthetic is at its most shimmering, the Donmar's
defining back wall glistening with gold off of which Neil Austin's lighting
twinkles, as if to suggest the galaxy that is about the one thing Caligula
cannot have. |
| Matt Wolf - Variety |
| "The Warehouse rear wall glistens and shines with lighting brightening Christopher Oram's gold, silver and copper paint effects. I liked the turquoise, verdigris lighting effect of the final stabbing." |
| Lizzie Loveridge - CurtainUp.com |
A Prayer for Owen Meany |
| But the main pleasure comes from the fluency of Gordon's staging. He fills an initially empty space with emblems of America reinforced by Neil Austin's lighting design which wittily uses pools of light to evoke a baseball pitch. |
| Michael Billington - The Guardian |
| No film set could be as involving as Dick Bird's bare floorboard stage, which Neil Austin's inch-perfect lighting enables to morph in a flash from nativity play to baseball pitch to riverbank to Thanksgiving dinner. |
| Dominic Maxwell - Metro |
| The lighting by Neil Austin (an up-and-coming talent on the London scene)
is quite beautiful, with large squares of color covering the stage like
lawns and carpets, or isolated pools of light for the narrator.
|
| Ellen Lampert-Gréaux - Entertainment Design |
Monkey! |
| "The lighting is highly stated and dramatic" |
| Lizzie Loveridge - CurtainUp.com |
La Navarraise |
| ...quite beautifully directed (Stephen Langridge), designed (Jessica
Curtis) and lit (Neil Austin) |
| Rodney Milnes - The Times |
Further Than The Furthest Thing |
| Niki Turner's sets, along with Neil Austin's lighting, play no small part
in creating the right mood for the play. |
| Peter Lathan - The British Theatre Guide |
| "Equal accolades must go to designer Niki Turner for a splendid set. Also to lighting designer Neil Austin and sound designer Duncan Chave for creating exciting visuals and atmospheres, particularly in the impressive eruption and boiler explosion scenes." |
| - Artsmart - South Africa |
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