Media

As the narrative roams around, set designer Andrew Bailey’s multi-use hinged platform again rises and falls, backed by Rob Sowinski’s gorgeous lighting and the video design by Chris Hocking

Deborah Jones, Limelight
02 April 2023

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Rob Sowinski’s lighting design continues to balance atmospheric mood with visual appeal and clarity. Inbuilt lighting of the central stage ring looks terrific every time it is used. Use of the rear cyclorama varies between abstract, gently animated landscape projections by Chris Hocking and lush walls of light by Sowinski, both styles complementing the attractive stage picture while enhancing the drama. 

Simon Parris, Man in Chair
03 April 2023

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There was no tiring of set designer Andrew Bailey’s signature stage-width drawbridge device and circular cut-outs, Harriet Oxley’s excellent, character-tuned costumes, and Rob Sowinski’s intelligently applied lighting design.

Paul Selar, Australian Arts Review
04 April 2023

Lighting designer Rob Sowinski achieves very effective results with deliberately slow increases in light for each new scene. Underground scenes are highly atmospheric and yet singers remain clearly seen. 

Simon Parris, Man in Chair
01 April 2023

The exquisite costumes by Harriet Oxley and lighting design by Rob Sowinski were staggering. Sweeting was radiant as the goddess of marriage; her every move caught the light coming down in rafts upon her. 

Leila Lois, ArtsHub
14 February 2022

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The stage-width drawbridge with its great circular cut-out is back, demarcating worlds above and below as part of Andrew Bailey’s striking designs, Rob Sowinski’s fabulously artistic lighting and Harriet Oxley’s apposite and highly appealing costumes.

Paul Selar, Australian Arts Review
10 February 2022

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This all formed the ideal canvas for Rob Sowinski’s adroit and vivid lighting

Michael Shmith, Opera Magazine UK
01 April 2022

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That it is accomplished with eye-catching minimalism and aesthetic strength is a credit to her surrounding creatives – Andrew Bailey’s inspired and thoughtfully scaled sets, Harriet Oxley’s relatable, character-distinctive costumes and Rob Sowinski’s moodily painted award winning lighting combine in stage pictures of meaningful, often piercing beauty. 

Paul Selar, Australian Arts Review
28 March 2023

Coupled with Rob Sowinski’s atmospheric lighting design, Andrew Bailey’s streamlined set design was capable of Tarn helm versatility, with the raising and lowering of the main platform ingeniously creating new spaces. Chief among the transformation of settings were the Rhine scenes, the gloomy mines of the Nibelungs, and the culminating entrance of the gods to Valhalla in a vivid mist of rainbow light.

Heather Leviston, Classical Melbourne
24 March 2023

Assisting the set was Sowinski’s magical lighting design that also gave the space a three-dimensional feel by subtly shifting with the action. The green and yellow light spilling in from the sides truly captured the essence of a forest floor with sunlight creeping in and immersed the audience in the story.

Stephanie Lee, theatretravels.org
23 January 2022

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This multi-strand but interlocking, coherent storytelling could not succeed without Sarah Tulloch’s economic but suggestive set design, Rob Sowinski’s bright-to-eerie lighting, Jodi Hope’s appropriately fairy tale costumes, and Marcello Lo Ricco and Steve Cooke’s enveloping sound design – especially menacing in Act II. 

Michael Brindley, Stage Whispers
01 February 2022

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Rob Sowinski’s lighting, underwriting the action, was respectful, telling, and vivid. 

Michael Shmith, Australian Book Review
11 February 2022

The design team: Greg Carroll and Rob Sowinski, have deliciously brought to life Beresford’s vision of a world of darkness, threat and malice. The occasional splash of jaundiced yellow light stains towering rock and stone walls; elaborate court costumes contrast to the gloom and murk of the settings and Banquo’s ghost appears in a searing shaft of white light, all focussing attention on the central theme of the power of magic.

Gregory Pritchard, concerto.net.au
01 June 2021

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A general brooding darkness with hints of silvery light in Rob Sowinski’s expert lighting design reveals both designer Gregory Carroll’s rugged, blackened and lofty cavernous setting as well as his period costumes of muted tones and rich textural variety.

Paul Selar, Australian Arts Review
19 May 2021

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A majestic set by Gregory Carroll is revealed, the huge grand sets are exquisitely lit by Rob Sowinski

Hayden Burke, Australian Stage
22 May 2021

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Lighting (designed by Rob Sowinski) plays on textured surfaces of the settings to striking, highly atmospheric effect.

Simon Parris, Man in Chair
21 May 2021

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Props must be given to the set designer Gregory Carroll and lighting designer Rob Sowinski, whose formidable designs were able to capture the strength of Scotland whilst adding the menacing darkness and atmosphere that follows the horrific themes of Macbeth’s treachery.

Daniel Hanssen, theAUreview.com
19 May 2021

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Rob Sowinski’s lighting design was spot on – plenty of shadowy ambiance while ensuring that the singers were clearly visible, most notably Helena Dix as Lady Macbeth.

Heather Leviston, classicmelbourne.com
20 May 2021

Rob Sowinski’s lighting is subtle but effective and vital to orienting the audience

Keith Gow, Keith Gow, Writer
26 January 2018

James Browne’s set and costume design, perfectly complemented by Rob Sowinski’s delicately detailed lighting design, is beautifully observed.

Clive Paget, Limelight
01 February 2017

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Rob Sowinski’s lighting design helps place us in the story so we know if we are mired in the excess of the Kit Kat Klub or standing in the austere and small confines of Fraulein Schneider’s rooming-house.

Debbie Zhou, Aussie Theatre
06 February 2017

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Through production designer James Browne, lighting designer Rob Sowinski and sound designers Nick Walker and Andrew Worboys, the tiny Hayes Theatre has been transformed into the seamy, dingy, exciting Kit Kat Club, a nitery that had no great days to look back on.

Diana Simmonds, Stage Noise
01 February 2017

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Rob Sowinski’s lighting is fabulously effective, richly coloured but also shadowy and expressionistic

Tim Byrne, TimeOut
03 May 2017

“Rob Sowinski’s lighting heightens the emotional perspective without the need for superfluous physicality on stage.”

Maxim Boon, LimeLight
27 May 2016

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“The inhospitable space is rendered warm and intriguing with an astute and delightful attention to detail. The lighting and costuming resist representing Crisp as spectral and allow all the beauty and the blemishes of the character to emanate from the stage. This is an exceptional piece of theatre, definitely not to be missed.”

Patricia De Risio, Stage Whispers
29 May 2016

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“It is a gorgeous production, designed by Romanie Harper (costumes and set) and Rob Sowinski (lights) who provide us with all the visual cues necessary to imagine the decrepit bedroom in which Crisp dwelled, while creating a sense of decadent drama that befits our protagonist, and bringing to sharp focus the physical subject of this monologue presentation.”

Suzy Wong, Suzy Goes See
13 July 2016

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“As deftly directed by Gary Abrahams, designed with flair by Romanie Harper, and with atmospheric lighting by Rob Sowinksi, this production sizzles. Capsis plays Crisp with panache and superb timing.”

Lynne Lancaster, Sydney Arts Guide
17 July 2016

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“There’s a Gothic grubbiness to Gary Abrahams’ production from Romanie Harper’s costume and set design through to Rob Sowinski’s lighting, which is at times eerie and ethereal, the final cue quite startling.”

Richard Cotter, Australian Stage
14 July 2016

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“Gary Abrahams’ directing must be given full credit here, as it must for the wonderfully/awfully grotty set design by Romanie Harper, the abstract half-threatening background sound by Daniel Nixon – fading and swelling with our feelings – and, especially I thought, for Rob Sowinski’s lighting which gave the small space a living dynamism as lights subtly took us to different places and different degrees of emphasis.”

Frank McKone, Canberra Critic's Circle
27 July 2016

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“His performance is supported by Daniel Nixon’s subtle sound, Rob Sowinski’s lighting, quite gorgeous at times, and by Romanie Harper’s costumes and evocative set. “

Alanna McLean, Canberra Times
28 July 2016

“Rob Sowinski and Bryn Cullen’s lighting design adds immense depth to the stage, where despite the relatively small spaces in which scenes often play out, there is still a sense of the vast expanse of this world. Their play with shadows and darkness throughout builds on the intimacy of the play while heightening the melancholy, despair and fear that is felt by the characters.”

Myron My, My Melbourne Arts
07 September 2017

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“...the set, sound, lighting and costume design unveil a surprising degree of spectacle”

Cameron Woodhead, Sydney Morning Herald
07 September 2017

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“Rob Sowinski and Bryn Cullen’s lighting design is rich and multifaceted, directly invoking Kushner’s wish that the play reveal its theatrical hardware but still wow us with its effects.”

Time Out, Tim Byrne

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Director Gary Abrahams and producer Cameron Lukey have assembled a creative team of truly top-notch calibre, who manage to deliver grandeur and dramatic clarity from seemingly slight resources.

the music.com.au, Maxim Boon
08 September 2017

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The transformation of the fortyfive space to accommodate this vast and complex work is nothing short of jaw-dropping - and reason itself to witness the show. The creation of a cloud-like theatre-magic aesthetic that shapes itself to reveal whole worlds made for a clarity and excitement that could have been a complete confusion if not for the incredible work done by Dann Barber (Set/Costume), Rob Sowinski, Bryn Cullen (Lighting) and Benjamin Sheen (Assistant Set)

Broadway World Australia, Brodie Papparella
08 September 2017

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Rob Sowinski and Bryn Cullen’s lighting design was gorgeously nostalgic, visibly populating the rig with enormous vintage fixtures and rusty old fluorescent batten fittings that flickered in supernatural moments. As a bit of a lighting nerd there were a few very covertly high-tech things about the design that blew me away – suffice it to say that it wouldn’t have been possible in the 90s but it does the work so much justice. 

Theatre People, Jai Leeworthy
12 September 2017

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Gary Abraham’s assured direction was abetted by precise lighting and sound design.

The Guardian, Steve Dow
27 December 2017