Meet Carl Robertshaw, Designer of The Hatchling
"That’s the beauty in live theatre, is that it’s live and it's magic, and your brain is letting you believe in these things even though you know they’re not real. Like a child, you’re looking at it with wonder."
Can you introduce yourself and tell us about your background with The Hatchling?
My name is Carl Robertshaw and I’m a designer for live events. I predominantly work with live shows, stadium shows, touring bands, theatre, and music. I work with architects, lighting designers, photographers, fashion designers and in the Space industry. I have five satellites in space.
I’ve got a long-standing background in kites and kite design. I’m five times World Sport Kite Champion and over ten times European and British Sport Kite Champion. I travel a lot with kites on the sidelines but also that’s my main thought process and approach to design; using fabric as a structure and using lightweight engineering as the premise for my designs.
Can you tell us about your journey with The Hatchling?
Angie and Mervyn approached me in 2015 with the idea of getting a dragon to fly. They didn’t know that I worked in theatre and live events at the time and that became sort of a double bonus; that I could not just design a dragon that flies but also work on designing the show.
Together, the three of us worked on developing the design, the idea, the artistic direction, the story, the background, and the influences that would go into this from Eastern and Western cultures to natural history.
It was exciting to bring together the elevated ideas of puppetry and kite flying. Mervyn and I excel in those areas, and we can bring those specialisms into a project to make it extraordinary. With Angie’s ambition, backing, and dynamism the project became so much more. The project very much became our personalities.
What are the most exciting parts of designing a puppet or kite of this scale?
The scale makes it exciting. If it was small, it wouldn’t have had impact, but if it’s big it becomes arresting and impossible to ignore.
The delicacy, nuances, the subtlety of movement that keeps this dragon alive, is because it is powered by people, not by machines. Learning this from an expert like Mervyn is really thrilling and introduced me to new philosophies within design.
I also brought equal subtleties from the kite world into the design. It needs to be light, it needs to move, it needs to be mobile. All these things became part of the show. In The Hatchling, what we’re unknowingly doing is puppetry in the sky.
Taking on something so ambitious would make most producers — and anyone backing the project — doubtful. Angie’s bravery and trust allowed us to build something extraordinary. Taking kites outside the normal kite festival audience and into the mainstream, and adding story, performance, lighting, elegance and scale, all of that adds magic.
That’s the beauty in live theatre, is that it’s live and it's magic, and your brain is letting you believe in these things even though you know they’re not real. Like a child, you’re looking at it with wonder. To be able to do that, to take kites outside the kite world and create this world of wonder, and to add all the creative live show and performance elements is such a wonderful thing.
"Anybody who knows anything about kites, The Hatchling is on their radar, and they look at this with enthusiasm, pride, and wonder."
That draw that it has, that gravity, is the extra layer of brilliance, or the thing that qualifies the determination and enthusiasm to recreate it again. It also proves why we were making those decisions in the first place, because people all around the world look in awe, and isn’t that what these things are supposed to do? Light the fire in the inner child in all of us?
Do you have a favourite part of the show or rehearsal process?
The best part for me is the dreaming. The part when you’re imagining what this is going to be. Lying in bed thinking about all the fantastical possibilities.
The project is like a tunnel, the start and the end are the brightest points. In the middle there are lots of questions, it’s where you’re working things out, doubt comes in, it’s the darkest point. You come out the other end and it’s all lovely and bright and the project is done. I really like the start of the tunnel, where it's bright and all the possibilities are ahead of you. It’s a childlike wonder, a child with a full playground in front of them. The imaginary starting point when you’re given the kernel of an idea, and your brain becomes a firework display.
How was the design process for Jitterbug different to The Hatchling?
The design of the Jitterbug was based on a script that already exists. There’s a lot of academic thinking behind that script, so although it can be so many different things in that conception period, it has to adhere to certain parts of the script and certain expectations. It’s a slightly odd rule book to play to, whereas with the dragon there was no rule book, it’s just pure daydreaming in an extraordinary way. Jitterbug was more about eliminating all the things that it’s not, to narrow it down to be the thing that it is. It became something quite odd, fabulous, and extraordinary.
There’s a set of conflicting physical constraints to make the Jitterbug work. It was a much shorter gestation period for the ideas. The Hatchling was 5 years in development, whereas Jitterbug was a matter of months. It was really good to work with the academics from Oxford, that was really vital for Jitterbug, and the two design processes were so different, making for two very unique creatures.
Is there anything you’re working on at the moment that you’d like to shout about?
This year has been quite an interesting year because The Hatchling has sat right in the middle. Before that I’d been working on a set piece for Stranger Things for Broadway, which is off the back of the success of Stranger Things: The First Shadow in the West End. I can’t tell you too much about Broadway, but I can tell you that I’m working on a quite extraordinary set piece. It’s going to be a big wow moment in the show and the Marquis Theatre is right on Times Square. The show will open in early 2025 and there isn’t much time now until installation into the theatre.
I’ve just come back from Belgium from working on Holiday on Ice with Robin Cousins. It’s really nice to go back and be with the same people that I’ve worked with already and they’re a lovely bunch of people. The crew are brilliant and they’ll be touring Germany next year with the show HORIZONS.
Explore Carl's work via his website
Stranger Things: The First Shadow is coming to Broadway in 2025
HORIZONS: Holiday on Ice will be touring to 22 cities across Germany in 2025
