Claypaky, in collaboration with Entedi – its official distributor for the United Kingdom – proudly sponsored the Cambridge University European Theatre Group (CUETG), a totally student-run theatre company which has been touring Shakespeare plays in Europe, with Volero Cube and Sharpy X Frame fixtures for its punky, farcical production of “The Comedy of Errors.”
CUETG was founded by famed actor Derek Jacobi in 1957 and has established a reputation for its technically ambitious and brilliantly creative productions. Director James Allen’s punk-rock “The Comedy of Errors” was acclaimed as “flawless” and “a delight to watch” (Varsity, 2026), bringing out the absurd and bizarre of the play with plenty of energy and fight scenes. The production toured Europe last December, ran educational workshops at schools in Switzerland and Belgium, and wrapped with a home run in Cambridge at the end of January 2026.
The Claypaky Volero Cubes and Sharpy X Frames supported the play with punchy lighting and great flexibility. “The addition of these lights made an inestimable impact on the professionalism and quality of our performances,” says Lighting Designer Peter Baker.
“The Volero Cubes brought character to our visuals, both as a pseudo-set piece and lighting fixture. These
lightweight moving heads were able to produce many complex and distinctive effects through the use of the Cube’s 4 RGBW pixels and 8 strobe cells, coordinated through Claypaky’s layer management system,” he explains. “Sustaining energy through scene transitions was a central focus of the production. The Volero Cube’s intense saturation and dynamic movement, combined with the show’s heavy metal soundtrack, carried the momentum without interruption.”
Eloise Davis, Production Manager and Technical Director for CUETG, says, “I was very glad to see how the Volero Cubes could be simultaneously so lightweight and so powerful – this was particularly useful for the tight turnarounds at get-ins and get-outs and for the limited storage we had on our touring coach.”
Baker notes that the Sharpy X Frames “allowed the creation of incredibly striking lighting states. The combination of prisms, gobo and animation wheels allowed me to create some beautifully textured lighting, and to produce the magical atmosphere of Ephesus on stage.
“The X Frame’s CMY color mixing was a perfect fit for this theatrical production,” he adds, with its ability “to achieve a range of saturations as well as nailing the less intense warms and colds. An additional tool that came in for use was the color wheel, which allowed me to create beautiful split color effects.
“The Sharpy X Frame’s versatility, large zoom range and speed allowed it to be the workhorse of my touring lighting rig,” Baker points out. “They were everything I could have asked for in a moving head hybrid fixture.
“All in all, Claypaky produces high quality and featureful lighting fixtures; they have been a delight to work with,” he reports.
Alena Turiakova, Marketing Director at Claypaky, commented: “At Claypaky, we are always proud to support the next generation of creative talent as they take their first steps into entertainment industry. Supporting their passion, ambition and artistic courage is part of our DNA. Initiatives like the Cambridge University European Theatre Group are not only an investment in education, but in the future of our industry.