Backstage
As the tour guide opens one of the Perspex screens and we peer through, I whisper to Corinne ‘this is as close as we get to David’s view!’ There’s a moment, as we let this sink in.
We’re ‘backstage’ at The Courtyard theatre, and there’s not much of it. I’m standing pretty much where David Tennant would have been standing last night before he made his first entrance.
When we called in at the theatre earlier, I’d spotted the notice about theatre tours. We’d just missed the 11 o’clock, but there was another at 12, so we asked in the shop.
‘I’m sorry, it’s fully booked…but if you have a word, he might be able to squeeze you in.’ So we head into town, and back again (‘at least we’re getting exercise’), and wait. The 11 o’clock tour comes out. There are quite a lot of them. The 12 o’clock assembles. There doesn’t seem to be as many, so we’re in. Even better, it’s free, and you can take photos in the auditorium.
It proves fascinating, as he tells us about the creation of the ‘rusty shed’ as the temporary replacement for the RST, and we get to view the stage, still set for Hamlet, from each level. We decide that the top balcony will never be seats of choice, though the sightline isn’t awful. He explains that there’s only about three and a half feet below the stage, and how the actors in The Histories got calluses on their knees and elbows from crawling around underneath. Sometimes, theatre isn’t very glamorous!
He tells us we can’t go on the stage, which has a shiny black floor for Hamlet, Love’s Labour’s and the Dream – all Gregory Doran productions. Apparently they initially let groups go on the stage as long as they took their shoes off, but he objected. Someone pipes up ‘so, the clog dancers* don’t damage it then’. We curl our lips slightly in the metaphorical direction of Mr Doran.
We’re ‘backstage’ at The Courtyard theatre, and there’s not much of it. I’m standing pretty much where David Tennant would have been standing last night before he made his first entrance.
When we called in at the theatre earlier, I’d spotted the notice about theatre tours. We’d just missed the 11 o’clock, but there was another at 12, so we asked in the shop.
‘I’m sorry, it’s fully booked…but if you have a word, he might be able to squeeze you in.’ So we head into town, and back again (‘at least we’re getting exercise’), and wait. The 11 o’clock tour comes out. There are quite a lot of them. The 12 o’clock assembles. There doesn’t seem to be as many, so we’re in. Even better, it’s free, and you can take photos in the auditorium.
It proves fascinating, as he tells us about the creation of the ‘rusty shed’ as the temporary replacement for the RST, and we get to view the stage, still set for Hamlet, from each level. We decide that the top balcony will never be seats of choice, though the sightline isn’t awful. He explains that there’s only about three and a half feet below the stage, and how the actors in The Histories got calluses on their knees and elbows from crawling around underneath. Sometimes, theatre isn’t very glamorous!
He tells us we can’t go on the stage, which has a shiny black floor for Hamlet, Love’s Labour’s and the Dream – all Gregory Doran productions. Apparently they initially let groups go on the stage as long as they took their shoes off, but he objected. Someone pipes up ‘so, the clog dancers* don’t damage it then’. We curl our lips slightly in the metaphorical direction of Mr Doran.
As we pass by the back of the stalls, we spot a list of scenes
‘Look, no pirates’
‘Maybe we could just add them back in!’
‘Look, no pirates’
‘Maybe we could just add them back in!’
It’s very tempting!
Then, we’re backstage. It’s very narrow. There are a few props, and a quick change area, and a scenery dock behind a curtain. He opens one of the screens and it’s only as I look out that I get a real sense of the size of the theatre, and just how little space the actors have. As I resist the urge to step onto the special surface, I don’t ask the guide any questions. I don’t need to. I’m just drinking in the theatre magic.*In Love’s Labour’s – for a minute there I thought I was watching Northern Broadsides!
Labels: David Tennant, Hamlet, shakespeare, stratford, theatre
posted by Val @ 3:04 PM
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