“Adding to the heady mixture of theatrical effects is Alan Brodie’s starkly dramatic lighting which has actors seen murkily in shadows through translucent panels, with an occasional spotlight on our sad-sack hero around whom all this inventiveness revolves…” Phyllis Butler, a CurtainUp San Francisco Review

CAN SILENCE BE EXCITING?
“The forceful use of lighting, cog machinery, wheels, circles, human labour, and the rise and fall of humanity in a 19th century metropolis depicts similarities in today’s highly technological and industrialized cities. Lighting designer Alan Brodie effectively incorporates a dramatic sense of style, conveying seasons, emotions, temperature, toil and passion.” Violetta Lapinski

The Overcoat is a Sumptuous, Stylish Work of Theatrical Art
“The impressive two-story set, designed by Ken MacDonald, is composed of sliding, multi-paned office windows, a wrought iron staircase on wheels and a giant wheel machine that looks like it came from Modern Times. Nancy Bryant’s costumes of both the poor and the rich in the early 20th century in St. Petersburg are right on the mark. Lighting by Alan Brodie is exceptional. This ismodern theatre at its finest.” Richard Connema, talkinbroadway.com

Fall theater season opens with ACT’s spiffy ‘Overcoat’
“The show’s design is not unlike that of an opera or ballet: clean, bold lines in Ken MacDonald’s set and striking, wildly active lighting by AlanBrodie. The stage looks great and is filled with wonderfully inventive activity, making this the most stylish ”Overcoat’ in town.” Chad Jones, Inside Bay Area

A SILENT THEATER, WITH FULL-VOLUME DANCING AND MIME
“But it took the Toronto based co-creators Morris Panych and Wendy Gorling to make this work a spectacle. They used 17 musical compositions by the 20th century composer Dmitri Shostakovich going nonstop, assembled twenty-two performers in movement as well as acting, and chose a set designer, Ken MacDonald, costumer, Nancy Bryant and lighting expert Alan Brodie to make the stage come alive by adding a subtext of meaning to the original tale. Their troupe is called CanStage and it was supported by the Canadian government. It reminds us that Cirque du Soleil as well as Cavalia both are Canadian, avant-garde creations. When the government supports, the arts are freed of their box-office, bottom line mentality. And instead of endless reprisals, new works emerge.” Carol Benet, artssf.com

“A lot has been said about the brilliance of Ken MacDonald’s set – a huge, double bank of paned windows that, transformed by Alan Brodie’s equally ingenious lighting, suggests many locations – and indeed, it lives up to its advance billing. But the whole production overflows with creativity.” Rebecca Todd, Eye Magazine