DEATH IN VENICE
“lit with infinite touches of imaginative subtelty”
George Hall for The Stage
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“Abetted by a design team of Nicola Turner (settings, fluid and monochrome), Sam Sharples (video imagery, both literal and impressionistic) and Robbie Butler (lighting, constantly shifting and moody, especially in the aerial sequences) Fuchs faithfully honours the period in which Thomas Mann set his source novella…”
Mark Valencia for Bachtrack
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“… a production that never puts a foot wrong. On purely aesthetic grounds, it looks beautiful…”
Richard Fairman for the Financial Times
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“Lighting designer, Robbie Butler, has clearly worked very closely with Olivia Fuchs (director) and Nicola Turner (designer) to ensure that the the light movement helped project the story as much as the cast and company on stage were. I remember thinking that the light was indicating direction throughout the piece, whether this was intentional or not it didn’t go unnoticed.”
Owen Noon for Winchester News Online
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“There is often mind-blowing beauty on stage, the stuff of visual poetry made concrete through exquisite lighting…”
Mark Kidel for The Arts Desk
OH NO IT ISN’T
“Robbie Butler’s lighting design is first rate”
Terry Eastham for LastMinuteTheatreTickets.com
DISRUPTION
“Ellis’s production looks dizzyingly fabulous (Robbie Butler’s lighting, Daniel Denton’s video design and Zoë Hurwitz’s glossy set collectively scream expensive hi-tech meets stylish imagination) and moves at a compelling pace.)”
Alun Hood for What’s On Stage
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“A special mention also goes to lighting designer Robbie Butler for dazzling us with special effects…”
Stephen Bates for The Reviews Hub
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“With Robbie Butler’s stark lights, his precise visual arrangements are futuristic tableaux that move the plot indefatigably.”
Cindy Marcolina for Broadway World UK
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“Also of particular note, the whole lighting set up for the show (designed by Robbie Butler) adds brilliance, with lights shining down creating filaments in the air, and uplighters at the edge of the stage.”
Heather Jeffery for London Pub Theatres Magazine
THE DRY HOUSE
“A well-planned set (Niall McKeever) is brought to life by excellent lighting (Robbie Butler)”
Fiona Maclean for London Unattached
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“Robbie Butler’s lighting is subtly used to aid the creation of mood”
John Groves for LondonTheatre1
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“Niall McKeever’s appropriately grim, fully realised set and Robbie Butler’s deceptively ingenious lighting design are further elements to savour in a virtually flawless piece of theatre.”
Alun Hood for My Theatre Mates
THE MAKROPULOS AFFAIR
“The lighting of Robbie Butler adds depth to the weird goings-on, a vividness adding a tense fibre.”
James Ellis for Buzz Magazine
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“Robbie Butler’s subtle lighting is an important factor.”
Stephen Walsh for the Art’s Desk
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“Lighting is skilfully employed throughout, the muted hues ever changing to match the mood. Credit to Robbie Butler here. Backstage at the opera house, Act II brings movement and colour, flamboyant red dominating throughout in the pile of roses left for Emilia Marty [...] Ice-cold Act III beautifully captures Emilia steely demeanour.”
Get The Chance Wales
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“Robbie Butler’s warm lighting”
Rebecca Franks for The Times
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“Robbie Butler’s lighting is always in the right place at the right time.”
Nigel Jarrett for Wales Arts Review
THE GUNPOWDER PLOT
“Robbie Butler's lighting is remarkably realistic too, piercing the prison bars and grids of the faux windows, adding to the disserters' oppressive stress with stark shadows and diffused darkness.”
Cindy Marcolina for Broadway World
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“…stunning projections, lighting and sound.”
The Week
OUR MAN IN HAVANA
“…brilliantly lit by lighting designer Robbie Butler, with a glowing mosaic of colour that blends to create that sultry exoticism as the action heats up.”
Judi Herman for WhatsOnStage
WOLVES ARE COMING FOR YOU
“…brilliant lighting design by Robbie Butler…”
Heather Jeffery for London Pub Theatres Magazine
THE ANGEL ESMERALDA
"The smoke and lighting effects, courtesy of Robbie Butler, portraying this are highly effective and would work equally well for any production of Die Walküre or Götterdämmerung.”
Sam Smith for Music OMH
THE WOLF THE DUCK AND THE MOUSE
"... clever lighting from Robbie Butler”
Anna James for The Stage
GUARDS AT THE TAJ
"Robbie Butler’s lighting makes the most of the radically different emotional and physical spaces the characters inhabit.”
Stephen Longstaffe for The Stage
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"... sensational lighting..."
Tracy Walker for Times and Star
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"... the skilful lighting keeps the tension crackling."
Mary Ingham for Cumbria Life
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"... beautifully and grimly realised by director Kash Arshad, designer Elizabeth Wright, sound designer Mark Melville and lighting designer Robbie Butler."
Mark Green for News and Star
THE CHILDREN
"...a haunting final image, atmospherically lit by Robbie Butler."
Stephen Longstaffe for The Stage
ISABEAU
"...the overhead fanfares which initiate the opera then recur at its dramatic highpoints, while Robbie Butler's lighting similarly extracts the requisite light and shade from music..."
Richard Whitehouse for Classical Source
DIALOGUES DES CARMÉLITES
"...Robbie Butler's striking lighting design..."
Claire Seymour for Opera Today
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"Exquisitely lit by Robbie Butler..."
Mark Valencia for Bachtrack
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"As the nuns sit in a row with their backs to us listening to La seconde Prieure, they look just like a painting by Francisco de Zurbarán. This Spanish artist’s chiaroscuro pictures tied in with the ‘black and white’ philosophies of many religious orders as they implied that one either is or is not in God’s presence. Robbie Butler’s lighting also plays a major role in generating this image, and in Act III light shoots up from below the stage with the grid on the floor fracturing it as it rises."
Sam Smith for Music OMH
THE PASSING OF THE THIRD FLOOR BACK
"Brass walls, torn up and dirty, encircle the characters and give a decadent and dark ambience. The absence of windows and the continuous games of light (by Robbie Butler) trap them, heightening the grip the Stranger has on everyone."
Cindy Marcolina for Broadway World UK
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"The fantasy element is enhanced by harpist Lizzie Faber who soundtracks the transformative presence of the stranger, enhanced by Robbie Butler’s atmospheric lighting design."
Mark Ludmon for British Theatre
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"Every so often, a shaft of sunlight pierces the gloom, denoting the metaphorical enlightenment of each character."
Dave Hollander for The Stage
THE ENCHANTED PIG
"The stage craft is spot on and [the] lighting and costumes [are] excellent"
David Winskill for Ham and High
MOTHER COURAGE AND HER CHILDREN
"Hannah Chissick's taut production, with its interrogation style lighting and stark set, is potent stuff"
Jo Knowsley for the Mail on Sunday
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"...the lighting of Robbie Butler comes into its own..."
Traffic Light Theatre Goer
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"With superb music from Duke Special, lighting (Robbie Butler), and a vivid translation from Tony Kushner (seen first at the National Theatre in 2009) the whole experience is one that not so much immerses an audience, but envelopes it."
Karl O’Doherty for The Reviews Hub
WINDOWS
"Lighting design by Robbie Butler follows the rhythm of the direction and is suitably subtle until the climax at the end of the play when a surge of light heralds the new state."
Viola Patrick for Live Theatre Uk
BOOM
"...What might not seem a demanding play to produce actually needs a smart creative team to make it click. Nicola Blackwell and Robbie Butler (set and lighting respectively) make crucial contributions. Blackwell's apt, brightly coloured set is both bizarre and practical, fully mirroring Jules's mindset and offering a brilliant peek into his personality.
With Barbara pushing levers for the whole duration, it's essential for lights to represent the changes she makes directly. The main three 'settings' lighting wise are aimed at the two characters, Barbara herself, and the fish tank (which is a character from the beginning, so that Jo even talks to it multiple times in the second part), helping the audience navigate the levels of storytelling..."
Cindy Marcolina for Broadway World UK
MUMBURGER
"...the change in the lighting's value and intensity brought a sense of rebirth and revitalisation to the stage..."
The Theatre Reviewer
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"...Robbie Butler’s clever lighting design adds warmth – and the opposite – to appropriate moments without things ever seeming laboured or overly stylised..."
Arthur's Seat
INCIDENT AT VICHY
"A special mention must go to the simple and very effective set design by Georgia De Grey. The minimalist white stage is complemented by bright, stark lighting. This setting adds to the intensity of the men’s experience, waiting for their fate, sent off one by one."
Felicity Peel for Everything Theatre
RUN THE BEAST DOWN
"...a dazzling symphony of shifting colours [and] flashing strobes..."
Fergus Morgan for The Stage
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“Also impressive is Robbie Butler’s atmospheric lighting.”
Susan Elkin for Sardines Magazine
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“The combination of the lighting and the music gives the whole production the feeling of a particularly vivid dream.”
Kate Evans for Kate’s Culture
ODD SHAPED BALLS
"...Most important here, though, is Robbie Butler’s lighting design and Tamara Douglas-Morris’ sound design. As well as visually and aurally colouring and filling in the imaginations of places and atmospheres from pitch to pub to home, they also help define scenes and timeline switching when it comes to flashback, ensuring the audience never become confused..."
JWaygood for Grumpy Gay Critic
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"...with one actor and with a static set (albeit a delicately crafted throwback by Luke W. Robson to both the community sports club locker room and the 1950s wooden panelled, heavy-carpeted English pub). Throw in some snappy lighting cues by designer Robbie Butler and the stage is set for an exposing and well-rounded production..."
Daniel Perks for Exeunt Magazine
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"...It’s an intelligently designed production and the sharp lighting cues help to define the shifts in place and time..."
Annabel Mellor for West End Wilma
DON'T SMOKE IN BED
"...Emily May Sions’s set is brilliantly realised, getting the most out of the intimacy of the venue whilst still creating the feeling of space in the bedroom. The levels created with the bed, the floor and the platforms provide different vantage points for the married couple during arguments. The lighting is soft and subtle, shifting from a comfortable hue to something more ominous without you even realising. This goes hand in hand with Chris Drohan’s excellent sound design, complete with relaxing reggae and more disturbing, distortion effects. It means that the audience members always feel an underlying sense of foreboding under the cosiness of the married couple’s bedroom, which serves as a perfect metaphor for the whole relationship..."
Breman Rajkumar for A Younger Theatre