Drama & Musicals Lighting Design

Sweeney Todd

Liverpool Everyman

Mark Jonathan’s Lighting Design is a work of art throughout. As Paul Duckworth’s Judge Turpin battles with his own morality, the projection of lights to create shapes on the stage floor reflected his thoughts in that moment. It is one of the cleverest use of LX I have seen in a production.

Sarah O’Hara, Mystery Magzine

The Revenger’s Tragedy

Nottingham Playhouse

Lighting designer Mark Jonathan provides the show with an array of lighting effects that border on genius. His work takes mood lighting into the stratosphere and back to settle unsettlingly in Neil Murray’s very atmospheric sets. The depths and pools of darkness created on stage almost become personalities of their own. 

Phil Lowe, Sixty 9 degrees

Blithe Spirit

Toronto, North American Tour

Simon Higlett created a lush, airy set.  Mark Jonathan’s lighting is fantastic, moving between bright daylight, storms, and ghostly apparitions flawlessly.  

Nicole Fairbairn, Scene in Toronto

My Cousin Rachel

The Gate at Charleston, Spoleto Festival

Live theater needs something beautiful to behold on the stage, and director Toby Frow and set designer Francis O’Connor (who also made the fabulous costumes) have brought that to fruition with the use of three large windows for the sitting room set. The Ashley estate’s main room is flooded with incredible light (big props to lighting designer Mark Jonathan) every time the shutters are opened, and the light changes based on the time of the day. The effect the first time this is done is stunning, and it never loses its appeal. Subtle lighting is used to accentuate the stage, but the bulk of the light work is done through these massive windows, lit from the other side to portray the sun’s natural beams. Bravo.

Michael Smallwood, The Post & Courier

Precious Little Talent

Trafalgar Studios

The aesthetics of the play are equally as interesting as the writing itself. Lucy Osborne’s design works wonderfully well with Emma Laxton’s sound and Mark Jonathan’s lighting design to create a range of enveloping atmospheres. The audience is drawn into the scene, whether it’s a cold, industrial New York rooftop, a stark subway carriage or George’s bare apartment as it is transformed by Joey’s presence, and everything accomplished is done so with limited space and a multifunctional set. The entire creative team have achieved the impressive task of enhancing the story without making their significant contributions overly obvious as you’re watching.

Julia Hogg BWW

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

Dr Faustus

The Royal Exchange, Manchester

Designer Ben Stones’ imaginative giant puppets and masks, coupled with Mark Jonathan’s atmospheric lighting and Richard Hammerton’s evocative sound design, make for a night of amazing spectacle.

Caroline May, Theatre.Net

Dr Faustus

The Royal Exchange, Manchester

Visually this is a sumptuous production both in terms of set and costumes, both expertly designed by Ben Stones. There is a strong reliance in the production on Mark Jonathan’s lighting design and Richard Hammarton’s sound effects both of which beautifully enhance the eerie and dark atmosphere.

Malcolm Wallace, The Public Reviews

Dr Faustus

The Royal Exchange, Manchester

Ben Stones’ epic set and Mark Jonathan’s filmic lighting lend scope where required and many of the scenes resemble the likes of The Exorcist, The Evil Dead or even a Lady Gaga gig, due to these unque touches…

Glen Mead- What’s on Stage