Simon Bennison

British Lighting Designer Simon Bennison worked for the Royal Opera House Lighting Department from 1991-2022, appointed Lighting Associate and Deputy Head of Lighting, 2020. 

For The Royal Ballet, he has designed A Diamond Celebration (Dispatch Duet, Prima, For Four, concerto pour deux), 'Inferno' (The Dante Project), Morgen, Anemoi, Scherzo, The Illustrated Farewell, Tarantella, Ballo della Regina, The Lesson, Renard, Les Lutins, Consolations & Liebestraum, Summertime, Carousel, See Even Night Herself is Here and Dance of the Blessed Spirits. And as Associate to Lucy Carter he lit Metamorphosis:Titian 2012 and Raven Girl. 

His work with Viacheslav Samodurov includes Non-linear Interactions, Tric-Trac (Royal Ballet), In a Minor Key (Mikhailovsky Ballet), Ondine (Bolshoi Ballet), Romeo and Juliet (Royal Ballet of Flanders and Ekaterinburg Ballet) and Le Baisir de la Fée (Perm Ballet).

Other lighting designs for dance include Carlos at 50, Nureyev Legend and Legacy, Take 5 Blues, Sea of Troubles (English National Ballet), The Dante Project (Paris Opera Ballet), Le Baiser de la Fée (Scottish Ballet), Three & Four Quarters, If Play Is Play (Headspace Dance Company). He has worked extensively with Cathy Marston and made pieces for George Piper Dances, Ballet Nacional d’España, Kim Brandstrup, Claire Russ, Shobana Jevasingh, Javier De Frutos, Liz Lea, Mats Ek, Didy Veldman, Luca Silvestrini, William Tuckett and Emma Diamond amongst others.

He has recreated works by Wayne McGregor and Christopher Wheeldon for ballet companies including Hamburg, Royal Danish, Flanders, San Francisco, Mariinsky, Hong Kong, Houston, Darmstadt, Bolshoi, Australian, Boston, Polish and the National Ballet of Canada.

Lighting for opera includes Dido and Aeneas (Ustinov Theatre), Swanhunter (Opera North), Rita, The Bear (Royal Opera) and Carmen (English Touring Opera), and for film, Agnus Dei (Arthur Pita, Royal Ballet) and How it Is (Gare St. Lazare, Dublin Theatre Festival).

Recent works for theatre include Happy Days and Disgraced for the Norwegian National Theatre, The Lady from the Sea, How it Is Parts 1 and 2, First Love, The End, The Beckett Trilogy, Here All Night, The Dead Dogs and Ivy & Joan (The Coronet).

Other works have been created for Gare St Lazare, Hampstead Theatre, Hammersmith Lyric, Royal Court, Oxford Stage Company, Chichester Festival Theatre, and the Bush Theatre. The Price transferred from the Tricycle Theatre to the West End. Howie the Rookie won multiple awards and transferred to Broadway.

Scenes from an Execution (Dundee Repertory Theatre) and In a Minor Key (Mikhailovsky Ballet) were both nominated for best lighting awards. Scherzo and Anemoi received Southbank Sky Arts Award in Dance and Critic's Circle National Dance Award respectively, while The Dante Project received a Southbank Sky Arts Award.