Experimenting with presenting Epic on the small stage (Part one)

Using lighting, I am attempting to show a battle between two vast medieval armies using just 8 actors!

I have always found that when battles are presented onstage, because there simply cannot be the amount of extras needed, the whole thing ends up usually looking like a bar brawl punch up!

I think, if you were to use effective sound and very narrowly cropped lighting, much like if you were lighting a puppet and avoiding lighting the puppeteer, you could train your actors to be in the correct place at the correct time to have the effect of a crowded battle field.

View from front up close

Lighting from the front in a very tight square and the same, perhaps softer from the sides to keep a naturalistic light with a sense of depth.

View from front several rows back

I would like to see how this could be used across a stage space in a series of vignettes with effective sound, to tell the story of how a battle panned out.

Viewed from the side, a couple of rows back