There's nothing quite like a tight deadline to get the team at Unusual excited...and that's exactly what we had at the Fortune Theatre in London's West End which is currently home to Operation Mincemeat the Musical. After 33 years on stage, the curtain fell on the spooky Woman in Black, but before Mincemeat could move in, we were tasked with replacing the theatre's flying sets.

With only two weeks between the load out of Woman in Black and load in of Mincemeat, we had our work cut out.

Working with Push the Button, our team of 8 riggers pulled out all the stops to get the job done, installing 11 new counterweight manual flying system sets, 6 hemp sets and refurbishment of the existing winch sets. The Fortune Theatre is one of the smallest venues in the West End and it's flying system hadn't been touched since before Woman in Black loaded in in the 1980's. The system is listed and as such special consent had to be granted in order to upgrade the system. We've worked around the old kit and some of the machinery will be preserved and curated for prosperity.

This upgrade is great news for the theatre of course. With a total of 20 sets, it now has scope to welcome heavier shows and should give the venue a new lease of life.

Operation Mincemeat opened for previews on 29 March and will run until 8 July. https://www.operationmincemeat.com/