Sylvia
Royal Ballet, Royal Opera House
Ballet productions lit by Mark Jonathan are a joy as he has sensitivity to artists and sets. Peter Farmer tastefully develops the sumptuous original Second Empire designs of Robin and Christopher Ironside. Conducted with brio by Benjamin Pope - it’s a delight.
Gavin Roebuck, The Stage, January 24 2008
The Tales of Beatrix Potter
Royal Ballet, Royal Opera House
The production evokes the balmiest of pastoral dreamscapes, with Potter's woodland, river bank and cabbage patch so strongly evoked that you can almost smell wet grass. Mrs Tiggy-Winkle, Peter Rabbit, Squirrel Nutkin and Jemima Puddle-Duck inhabit an English idyll, and Ashton has them dancing so merrily you almost believe Potter's characters have been brought to life.
The sets and costumes are wonderful
Sarah Frater, Evening Standard December 24, 2007
The Nutcracker
Northern Ballet Theatre
Indeed the entire production is hugely successful. The imaginative set designs by Charles Cusick-Smith are eminently suitable for touring; Mark Jonathan has created fresh and intelligent lighting schemes and the musical arrangements by John Longstaff are excellent. The Costumes by Nixon are exciting, colourful and original.....it would be difficult to beat this production of the Nutcracker for dramatic intelligence and strong production values.
Mike Dixon, Dance Europe. January 2008
The gorgeous snowy sets designed by Charles Cusik Smith were sets to die for: the NBT Orchestra, lead by Geoffrey Allan, who gave a dynamic and lyrical rendering of Tchaikovsky’s wonderful score, which would have stood on its own as a concert performance, was under the Direction of John Pryce-Jones: inspired lighting by Mark Jonathan illuminated this scintillating Company and brought the Nutcracker Christmas to life.
Cinderella
The Royal Ballet
This is a gorgeous production, with magical sets by Toer van Schayk transforming the grim surroundings of Cinderella's kitchen into a succession of spring, summer, autumn and winter gardens for the dances of the Seasons fairies, Mark Jonathan's lighting providing a dreamlike quality. Christine Haworth's delicate costumes could have stepped straight out of a Watteau painting.
Beauty and the Beast
Birmingham Royal Ballet, Birmingham Hippodrome
When he's transformed back into a man, we, like Belle, have to come to terms with him once again. Scarcely recognisable as the hunter in the dark prologue, he looks smaller and more vulnerable than his beastly alter ego.
Mark Jonathan has lit the rest of the production so that Philip Prowse's magnificent jet and gold designs are now visible in detail, their magic wittily surprising.
Jann Parry. The Observer. 18th December, 2005
Philip Prowse's sumptuously sooty inky designs.The old-gold and black-velvet sets and often inky costumes could easily render the dancers invisible, but Mark Jonathan's ingeniously atmospheric lighting allows us to savour every detail. The constant transformations from home to castle and back again are unfolded with amazing smoothness...
La Sylphide
The Royal Ballet, Royal Opera House
The result is lovely, immaculate, heart-warming. It’s gorgeous to look at, using Sören Frandsen’s sets and Henrik Bloch’s costumes from the Copenhagen theatre, which are completely authentic for the ballet’s period — the handsome hall of a Scottish manor house, the rocks and trees of the misty forest — in exquisite lighting by Mark Jonathan. The sight of the Sylph in purest white, looking in through the leaded window, framed against blue light, is ravishing. So are the Sylphs en masse, in their delectable ensembles.
David Dougill. The Sunday Times. 16th October, 2005
Sylvia
American Ballet Theatre, The Metropolitan Opera House, New York
Having seen this ballet last November at Covent Garden's Royal Opera House, I find it looks even better on the large Metropolitan Opera House stage. Mark Jonathan's inspired lighting proves shadowy when apt and at other times washes the stage with warm white light that brings out the painterly details of the settings and the rainbow of pastels in the costuming.
It's magically lit by Mark Jonathan
This is a lavish production, with a looming forest and grotto, a hideout with the sea and Eros' magical ship beyond, and a towering formal temple. These are the original designs by the brothers Robin and Christopher Ironside, with additional designs by Peter Farmer. In an era of crashing chandeliers and airborne cars, they hold their own.Their costumes- in tangy and delicately matched colours, each outfit looking individual yet homogeneous- are a treat in themselves. Mark Jonathan's lighting managed to be highly theatrical but not intrusive.
Sylvia
The Royal Ballet, Royal Opera House
The beautiful sets and costumes by the Ironside brothers, Robin and Christopher - a compelling reason to see the ballet again - have been restored, with sympathetic help from designer Peter Farmer. They've been wonderfully lit by Mark Jonathan, far better than the old Opera House could have achieved. So the new production looks gorgeous
The other joy of this Sylvia is its ravishing sets: gorgeous backdrops, misty landscapes inspired by the French painter Claude Lorrain, and a magical transformation scene in which Orion's cave vanishes and Sylvia is carried home across the sea. The original designers were Robin and Christopher Ironside…with the help of Peter Farmer and lighting expert Mark Jonathan…their work has been brought back to life in a spectacle that embodies all the romance of ballet.
The Sleeping Beauty
Birmingham Royal Ballet
From the first view of the rich, gold drop-curtain, drawn by a bewigged and frock-coated flunkey with his encrusted candelabra, you are ushered into a world of fantasy that does better than either of the Royal Ballet's two recent productions. An ornate, dark gold and veined marble hall by Philip Prowse has the solidity of 17th century dynastic architecture about it, a formal stuffiness in the full-bottomed wigs and dense brocades, all lit with bronzed dimness of candlelight. It is a palace that begs for youth and brightness, and which duly lightens and pales, until its close 100 years later with a dazzling golden shower of spangles over the 18th century wedding of Princess Aurora.
Prowse and his lighting designer Mark Jonathan take huge credit for the atmospheric rightness of this production and its sumptuous French-Russian Elegance.
Mark Jonathan's lighting, in particular for the rays of sunshine breaking through the thick canopy of the enchanted forest was another delight.
The Protecting Veil
Birmingham Royal Ballet
Bintley's The Protecting Veil, to John Taverner's music and fine designs by Ruari Murchison under dramatic lighting by Mark Jonathan.
Dancing Times. March, 1999
It seems simple as it passes: only in retrospect do you realise how perfectly judged the costumes are Ruari Murchison, how brilliant the lighting Mark Jonathan.
Dance Now. Summer, 1999
Lighting by Mark Jonathan is excellent, the setting, Ruari Murchison, no less so, and the oblique homage to de Valois is sincere.
Clement Crisp. Financial Times
David Bintley translates Taverner's religious tract magnificently through a series of stunning stage pictures of the Virgin in red, wrapped in a white veil against black or a battered gold background, looking like a byzantyne painting. The various stages in her life are conveyed with cello and orchestra and Ruari Murchison's simple designs suggesting the cross or an interior are matched by Mark Jonathan's lighting. The total effect is overwhelming.
Dance Express. April, 1999
On the vast stage of Sadler's Wells, it looks even more impressive. Ruari Murchison's simple wall of gold leaf glimmers dimly as if lit by church candles, etches a Blakean sunrise for the Virgin's transfiguration, and dazzles to proclaim the ressurection. Christ's cross is a simple column of ruched brown silk which ingeniously slips away to reveal a golden ladder pointing the way to Heaven. This is design which almost inspires worship in itself.
The Independent on Sunday. 14th February, 1999
The Seasons
Birmingham Royal Ballet at Sadlers Wells, London
Jean-Marc Puissant's costumes, including crushed velvet in various hues and Mark Jonathan's subtle lighting lend the exercise an attractive patina.
Giselle
Birmingham Royal Ballet at the Hippodrome, Birmingham
Hayden Griffin has set the scene in a ruined abbey, with skeletal vaulting and an air of real mystery, enhanced by Mark Jonathan's fine lighting.
The 18 earthbounds were eerily lit in Mark Jonathan's spooky sidelights.
Louise Levene
It permits the pale starlight specified by Gautier, the bright moonlight casting soft blue shadows. The lighting here by Mark Jonathan is a major success. Atmosphere is everything. The long skirts of the Willis hang beautifully both in repose and movement, and seem to encase them in a haze of light.
Dante Sonata
Birmingham Royal Ballet at the Hippodrome, Birmingham
The tumultuous beginning of Liszt's sonata "after reading Dante" gives way to a quieter sequence, and a passageway of light appears across a dark stage, down which enters a group of women in white.Their gentleness is taunted by a women in a black skirt with a snake coiled round her body and arms. So the theme of light versus darkness is established in Dante Sonata, Frederick Ashton's ballet.
Beauty and the Beast
Birmingham Royal Ballet
David Bintley and his team have kept their potential audience clearly in focus, and its strengths are in a brilliantly-created set (Philip Prowse), atmospheric lighting (Mark Jonathan), an ingenious score, newly composed by Glenn Buhr, and straightforward classical choreography.
Robert Beale. Manchester Online
It boasts, and will do well to boast, superb design by Philip Prowse, which excites the imagination, delights the eye, performs prodigies of dramatic stimulation. The Beast's domain is ripest Louis XIV, the Beauty's Charles X. Costuming is brilliant. It is well lit by Mark Jonathan.
Clement Crisp. Financial Times. 3rd December, 2003
Musicals
Wizard of Oz
Birmingham Repertory Theatre
Yes, it looks wonderful thanks to designer Peter McKintosh and Mark Jonathan (lighting). The film-echoing monochrome Kansas and vibrant-toned Oz are superb, the circular sets are breathtaking.
Sweet Charity
Victoria Palace, London
There are some excellent performances and Terry Parsons' charming set rises simply and wittily to the challenge of Charity's ever-changing surroundings, with considerable help form Mark Jonathan's sumptuous lighting.
Marlene
Cort Theatre, New York City, USA
A Special word of praise is due to Mark Jonathan, who has lit the set and the dazzling costumes of Terry Parsons - both show consummate skill".
Plays & Players. May, 1997
Where have all the flowers gone? Delivered within blue cross hairs of light.
New York. 12th April, 1999
Ms. Phillips wears that dress with authority, while subtly suggesting the discomfort of the aging body beneath it. And yes, awash in Mark Jonathan's cheekbone-conscious lighting, singing Dietrich standards like "Lilli Marlene" and "Falling in love again," she looks (especially in profile) and sounds enough like the real thing to give you the willies.
Ben Brantley. The New York Times. 12th April, 1999
The Ha'penny Bridge
Opera House, Cork, Ireland
Lit by Mark Jonathan are powerful elements.
When lit, the set can convey vivid street images
Opera
Il Barbiere di Siviglia
Scottish Opera
In Simon Higlett's permanent set-albeit one that opens up spectacularly - and Mark Jonathan's atmospheric lighting, it is a very beautiful staging that takes inspiration from the crumbling, pastel-coloured palacios of Havana.
John Allison. The Sunday Telegraph. 14th October 2007
Ariadne Auf Naxos
Los Angeles Opera
Friedkin avoids anti-climax with some cinematic tricks of his trade- stunning visuals of the night sky, brilliantly evocative lighting, and finally an inspired closing gambit to unify both halves of the work, the simulated fireworks display as demanded by the rich patron
Richard S. Ginell. Daily Varity. September, 2004
This is one of those productions where all the elements, from Sam Fleming's effective and witty costumes to David Bridel's hilarious choreography, Mark Jonathan's evocative and L.A-like lighting and Michael Curry's puppets, each a charming and inventive wonder, come together to make an evening of theatre, of music, of thoughtful philosophy that must be experienced.
John Farrell. U Weekend. September, 2004
A wonderfully lit set.
David Gregson. Opera West. September, 2004
...crisp, witty direction by Friedkin, the beauty of the visual scheme (Edwin Chan's set, Sam Fleming's costumes and Mark Jonathan's lighting) and Curry's wonderful puppets (including an aria appreciating whale). Put their creative contributions together with this high powered cast and orchestra under the leadership of Negano, and you have a production that represents a new high-watermark for the company.
Jim Parker. The Daily Breeze. September, 2004
William Friedkin's ("The French Connection" and "The Exorcist") collaboration with Los Angeles Opera produced a re-creation of Richard Strauss' Ariadne auf Naxos that is exceptional in its immediacy, stunning beauty and sensuality, not to mention delightful entertainment. From the moment the curtain went up, all the elements - William Freidkin's superb vision and direction, the glorious set design by Edwin Chan, the magnificent lighting by Mark Jonathan, the imaginative costumes by Sam Fleming, the innovative use of puppets designed by Michael Curry, and the artists and orchestra exquisitely conducted by Kent Nagano - lived and breathed as a living, vibrant organism......The lighting design, especially in The Opera section, was outstanding. The gradual change from morning to twilight, the rich pinkish-red perfectly matching Zerbinetta's bustier while she performed her aria, was breathtaking. Even more spectacular was the gradual metamorphosis of the moon, which slowly emerges from the mists of twilight, transformed first into an eclipse of the sun, then spinning into a blood red moon, itself eclipsed by a radiant rainbow becoming the staircase for the arrival of Bacchus' ship which descends diagonally from the sky, the rainbow dissolving into a rain of shooting stars. What a glorious depiction of Ariadne's inner turmoil and Bacchus coming to sweep her off her feet. When Ariadne finally surrenders herself to Bacchus in a kiss, a white wreath, representing the conquering god, emerges from the night sky...
This Ariadne auf Naxos is a rare and wonderful experience, not to be missed.
The Beverly Hills Outlook.
Idomeneo
Glyndebourne Touring Opera
It evokes rapturous praise or the opposite extreme, both extravagant reactions to a serious conception, that owes much to Mark Jonathan's lighting.
Michael Kennedy. Daily Telegraph. 1st November, 1985
Peter Grimes
Los Angeles Opera
But where Arrighi and Schlesinger may have succeeded best is in the collaboration with lighting designer Mark Jonathan. Britten famously peppered his opera with six instrumental interludes meant to convey the ocean. (Often they are played against a blackout stage which is perfectly acceptable if unimaginative.) Schlesinger and his team, however, project light onto scrims as the music plays, thus cleverly amplifying Britten's suggestion of a rolling sea, storm clouds gathering, etc.
David Mermelstein. Daily News. 24th October, 2000
And in this new co-production of Los Angeles Opera and Teatro alla Scala, ours is the dark vision designed by Luciana Arrighi, with riveting lighting by Mark Jonathan, forcing us to stare into a watery tomb of chambered nautiluses and swirling death.
Downtown Times
Mark Jonathan's cleverly deployed dawn-to-midnight lighting preserves a believable atmosphere.
Alan Rich. Variety. 23rd October, 2000
Mark Jonathan's lights worked moody wonders.
Victoria Losseleaf. El Puente Latino. 31st October, 2000
Die Entfuhrung aus dem Serail
Opera du Rhin
Les décors de Benoît Dugardyn sont très ingénieux: un succession de tableaux très simples, où l'on joue beaucoup sur les perspectives mais qui sont entrecoupés de tableaux dépeignant l'empire ottoman, le sérail inspirés de gravures persanes. Tout cela beau, très coloré et vivant, et comme notes exotiques des animaux: rhinocéros, crocodiles, girafes, aux comportements très drôles. C'est gai. Les costumes de Sue Wilmington sont élégants et montrent le contraste entre les costumes européens et ceux de Turquie au XVlllè siecle et les éclairages de Mark Jonathan sont très au point.
Musique Novembre. 1998
Deux ans après, la mise en scène de l'Anglais Stephen Lawless n'a rien perdu de sa fraicheur. Quelques bonnes travailles surtout pour l'aménagement des espaces, réhaussées par l'équilibre très heureux des décors et des éclairages. On pourait se croire devant un tableau de Vermeer.
Alsace. 9 Novembre 1997
Le décor est beau (perspective accélérée, système de "camera oscura" sur le salon de Blonde), les costumes reffinés et les lumières fort subtilement maîtrisées. Tout celà compose un tableau délicieux de fraicheur.
Patrick Nicolle. Liberte. 29 Mai, 1996
Venus and Adonis/ Dido and Aeneas
Vlaamse Opera- Gent / Antwerp
Wellicht past dit alles in Lawless' koncept, dat klassieke mythologie en 17 de-eeuwse denkpatronen met psychologische overwegingen verbindt: dat koncept zorgt trouwens voor exquise beelden - mede dank zij het erg mooie décor van Benoît Dugardyn (het lijkt wel een hommage aan Karl-Ernst Hermann, die trouwens op de première aanwezig was), dat prachtig wordt belicht door Mark Jonathan.
Stephen Moens. De Morgen. November, 1997
Don Pasquale
Los Angeles Opera
Mark Jonathan's inspired lighting design breathes life into the production
Drama
Prometheus Bound
New York
Paul Wills' beautifully stark set—chains and smoke—complements Mark Jonathan's harsh and solitary lights.
Even as theatergoers contemplate how Aeschylus' play speaks to our times, they will find themselves stunned by the simple beauty of scenic designer Paul Willis' raised black stage over which huge chains hang, keeping David Oyelowo's passionate and pitiable Prometheus in place. Enriching the environment immeasurably is Mark Jonathan's steeply angled and subtly color-tinged lighting design that seems to sculpt the air surrounding Prometheus as it cuts through an ever present haze of smoke and fog, which often brings to mind images from German films and stage productions of the early 20th century.
There's a lot to appreciate in James Kerr's production of the early Aeschylus tragedy. Paul Wills' cunning set design finds a visually arresting way to stylize the play's central idea-that Prometheus has been nailed into a rock as punishment for presenting humankind with the gift of fire. ….Mark Jonathan's stunning lighting design-a series of strongly conceived white-light looks with haze-adds to the atmosphere as does Christopher Shutt's montage of wave sounds and bird calls.
Prometheus Bound
Sound Theatre, London
James Kerr's production of his own translation of Aeschylus achieves moments of awesome power. He fills the dark space with spectacular and sombre images and sounds. Prometheus’s chains are suspended across the width of the stage, but the noise of his shaking them echoes beyond into eternity in Chris Shutt’s sound design; the pale-limbed Chorus of young girls emerge from shadowy corners in the auditorium, looking in Mark Jonathan’s subtly evocative lighting like a fleshly incarnation of a Burne Jones vision of beautiful maidens;
C J Sheridan. ROGUES & VAGABONDS. August, 2005
Through this nail-biting, ball-passing discourse, the breathtaking shadowy lighting by Mark Jonathan, the angelic folk song and unsettling, stormy sounds of Chris Shutt, the sense of a story is set on fire. For a play often accused of lacking action and humour, better read than staged, the tensions and rhythms of the Io scene alone are enough to illustrate this as an intensely driven and spectacular piece of drama.
Diana Bailey. ROGUES & VAGABONDS. August, 2005
The set representing the desolated rocky cliff in the Caucasus is austerely simple. Isambard Kingdom Brunel chains hang in front of a background of post-industrialist grey metal with colourless lighting. The chains are rattled, interspersed with sounds of crashing waves and thunder, giving an atmospheric sense of the remote spot, which is frequented only by extreme weather.... The raw energy and simplicity of this outstanding production makes it feel at once like experimental and primeval theatre. Impeccable direction, cool uncomplicated design and excellent acting make this a compelling evening of untamed ancient tragedy
Charlotte Loveridge. CurtainUp. August, 2005
Neville's Island
Birmingham Rep
When a theatre programme contains a four-page feature with the director, designer, lighting designer and production manager discussing how they built the set and staged the play, you imagine they've probably come up with something special...
The whole set looks spectacular - and when it's covered in swirling mist the island appears cold, damp and miserable. Not the place you'd want to be stranded. When lighting designer Mark Jonathan gets to work, Rampsholme looks even less inviting.
Tejas Verdes
The Gate, Notting Hill
..the Gate's talented new artistic director, Thea Sharrock, has come up with a breathtakingly imaginative production, beautifully designed by Dick Bird and lit by Mark Jonathan, that slips the surly bonds of naturalism to create something rich, strange and dreamlike.
We enter the auditorium by torchlight negotiating a dark maze of filing cabinets containing the names and details of the disappeared, and enter a forest of pine trees, with earth underfoot, sunlight flickering through the trees, and the sounds of birdsong.
Perhaps we are in the grounds of the luxurious hotel, where the music room was turned into a torture chamber, perhaps lost in some Dantean dark wood, beyond space and time, among the souls of the dead....Unforgettable.
Charles Spencer. The Daily Telegraph. 15th January, 2005
The Crucible
Birmingham Rep / National Tour
Simon Higlett's spacious and adaptable set, like the interior of a New England barn and moodily lit by Mark Jonathan, captures the atmosphere.
Philip Radcliffe. Manchester Evening News
None of this would work so well, though, if it were not for the understated magnificence of Jonathan Church's production, which boasts a beautiful set by Simon Higlett (breathtakingly lit by Mark Jonathan), some heart-stopping choral music in the English style by John Tams, and a cast of 20 powerful actors.
Joyce McMillan. The Scotsman. 4th November, 2004
Mark Jonathan must be specially commended for his lighting which breathes life into the sets. The clever use of atmospheric cast iron ceiling lamps and props is a stroke of genius. The sets themselves are beautifully made with rustic simplicity.
Irja Uusitalo. The Stage. 14th October, 2004
The Adventures of the Stoneheads
National Theatre
Bridget Kimak's versatile yet monumental design; Mark Jonathan's evocative lighting; Mike Woods splendid through scoring.
Joe McCallum. What's On. 10th-17th June, 2002
Mark Jonathan's lighting is strong and reflective of the climate.
Lisa Whitbread. The Stage. 1st July, 2002
The audience is welcomed into the auditorium by a roaring sea. A blue and grey flecked sky evokes an atmosphere of poetic desolation.
Rachel Halliburton. The Evening Standard. 8th July, 2002
Les Liaisons Dangereuses
Bristol Old Vic
When the Vicomte de Valmont (Rupert Penry-Jones, excellent) makes his first attempt on the virtue of Madame de Tourvel (Emma Cunnliffe, most moving in her passion and her grief), West places them near the rear of the stage where a low sun throws their shadows against a wall. Shadows are so seldom seen on a stage that the effect of this is strikingly disquieting.