Unusual Rigging & Engineering rig Matilda the Musical at Etihad Arena

15th July 2024

The multi award winning Matilda The Musical paid a flying visit to Abu Dhabi’s Etihad
Arena in June. This was the first time that the production, which has won over 101
international awards had ever been staged in an arena venue, so production
manager Matt Towell was pleased to have Unusual Rigging & Engineering (URE) on board
to ensure everything went according to plan.

“The show is pretty much a carbon copy of the West End production,” explained
Matt. “However, due to the difficulties of some of the venues, we chose to put all the
scenery on a ground support truss. Emily Egleton, design engineer at Unusual in the
UK drew all the ground support plans for us and we also carried out a test build at
Unusual’s HQ in Bugbrooke, Northampton. We then liaised with the team in the
UAE, and once stage size and location were established, the URE team were tasked
with making the arena look like a theatre auditorium and to make the rigging for the
entire production work as it should.”

The URE team headed by Khalid Ali, also supplied track for some of the flying pieces
and Kinesys motors for the items which could not be tracked and had to fly up and
down. With a plan in place and pre-rig set to occur the day before the show opened,
the production was hit with a major delay on the arrival of the kit via freight. ‘Without
the support of the URE team, this could have become a major problem. However,
with Denis Bramhall at the helm, URE really pulled it out of the bag for us, quickly
quoting and organising to double up on the pre-rig kit so that when the equipment did
arrive, we could just unload it and get it hung immediately.”

The brief stop at the Etihad Arena was the final destination on the Matilda
International Tour. “Despite the brief run of just 6 shows, we were thrilled to be able
to stage this amazing production in the impressive arena, and delighted that the
audiences who attended got the authentic theatre experience that Matilda
demands. I can always trust Unusual to get the job done whatever the challenges of
the show or the demands of the venue and I’m looking forward to being back with
Mamma Mia next summer,” concluded Matt.