A new production of Harvey Granville Barker’s play Waste is currently showing at
The National’s Lyttelton Theatre with smooth ‘swipe’ curtain movements utilising
Triple E’s Chaintrack, Unitrack and Unibeam systems.

The controversial play, which was famously banned by the censors when it was first
written, tells the story of the ambitious independent politician Henry Trebell and his
plans for a bill to disestablish the Church of England.

The National Theatre’s Deputy Production Manager Cliona Ni Mhochain approached
Triple E’s Managing Director David Edelstein to assist with the track solutions.

“We needed a smooth, silent and reliable system to achieve a swipe motion to go
from an empty stage to actors’ preset,” explains Ni Mhochain. “We also wanted to
create an aperture to suggest the outside world further upstage that could change
size and position easily and quickly, which Chaintrack provides.”

The team has rigged a total of three tracks, all with motors and speed variable
control. The track systems are a mixture of the newly supplied Chaintrack and the
National Theatre’s existing Triple E stock of Unibeam and Unitrack.

“One track and curtain swipes from one side of the stage to the other, and the other
two tracks and curtains are on the same truss but slightly staggered to allow us to
move them to different positions on and off stage but look like they are on the
same plane,” Ni Mhochain continues. “Chaintrack was easy and quick to install, has
worked perfectly from the start and is low maintenance. It’s easy to operate and
almost silent which tied in nicely with the style of this production.”

The National Theatre has a longstanding and positive relationship with Triple E.
Triple E’s managing director David Edelstein was part of the stage management
team at the National Theatre when it opened in 1976, progressing to production
management on the Olivier and Cottesloe (now the Dorfman Theatre) stages. Since
then, Triple E track systems and motors have been used on a wealth of NT
productions, including, most recently, Travelling Light, which toured UK theatres
and was broadcast to cinemas worldwide in 2012 via NT Live.

“After discussing the show’s needs with David and seeing a sample of the
Chaintrack we were happy that it suited our requirements perfectly,” says Ni
Mhochain. “The ability to store the curtains into spiral stacks means that when
offstage they fit behind, and within the footprint of, the show masking flats.”

David Edelstein comments: “Working on the Chaintrack systems for Waste was a
very positive experience, the NT knew exactly what they wanted to achieve and we
were able to fulfil the brief with the minimum of custom parts. It was great to see
so much of the NT’s existing stock of our equipment being used to good effect on
this production.”

Waste is scheduled to run until the end of March 2016.