My career as a stage performer was a disaster. As a preparatory school child I appeared on a formal stage three times. As a running around elf wearing a borrowed pair of girls brown knickers which humiliated when I was told that this was so by the girl in great glee; as a pianist who made mistakes with the piece I decided to play rather than the couple of bars which the tutor intended; and as a policeman wearing a real helmet which a friend of Aunty Harriet provided. This brief walk on was a success because there was no embarrassing disaster. There was also the nativity play where I was part of the supporting cast. Later as a local taxation motor vehicle licences finance clerk I performed on a washboard as part of a Skiffle group with was of the entertainments after the annual NALGO branch dinner.
A career as a creator of plays was a possibility after writing a play at the age of 21 which the readers of a major contemporary theatre group in London, the Royal Court, thought the writing was interesting and asked to see more, but instead I went to Ruskin College, Birmingham University and child care social work and social administration.
I attended theatrical performance over the next four decades of all kinds, from Royal Shakespeare Company ,of most of, if not all of his plays, and various classics with the ten play Tantalus one of the highlights to full production musicals with Miss Saigon competing with Les Miserables for the most moving spectacular, to modern drama's such as the Long and the Short and the Tall, Shadowlands and Singer, to verse plays such as The Cocktail Party and Under Milk Wood and pantomimes and family orientated stage reproductions of popular TV shows such as "Hi Di Hi", "Are you being served", and "Hullo Hullo."
It was not however until two years ago with the reopening of the Northern Playhouse and its recreation of three theatre spaces that I commenced to be interested in how plays are produced as well as written, culminating in my first back stage tour this morning of an international standard musical production after the second major overall development of one of the great presenting theatres in the United Kingdom, after last night watching the eleven biological men of the RSC in a new work, play in progress.
This morning an added bonus was a half an hour talk with slides on the history and development of the theatre in Newcastle. The earliest record presented was of publicity in 1656 over a proposed performance at the Flying Post which antagonised Cromwellian Protestants and which was as much anti Catholic as anti theatre. For a few years around 1735 there were theatrical performances in Castle Yard and then for forty years at the Turks Head Long Room in the Big Market. It was not until 1784 that a purpose built theatre was created as the Theatre Royal and continued until 1836 when it was necessary replace the theatre as part of the Richard Grainger development in central Newcastle, one of the finest collection of building facades anywhere confirmed by the highest concentration of grade one listed buildings anywhere in the UK. The present external building was completed 10 months later at a cost of less that £1000 over the building it replaced. Unfortunately there was a major fire in 1899 associated with a performance of Macbeth hence the subsequent theatrical tradition of the play being called the Scottish play, because this was not the only fire associated with play performances, and which is about to be performed by the RSC at the Playhouse next week. The auditorium was devastated. The fire safety curtain which must be tested sometime during every performance is designed to protect one part of the theatre from the other and at the Theatre Royal, friends have contributed £15000 for a special painting to cover the screen.
Between 1986 and 1988 there was a major redevelopment, the costing 6.5 million, probably double today, and the new marble and chandelier four floor staircase cost £2 alone. The area before the theatre was transformed so there is a bar/coffee and seating facility at every level. Such is the height of the "Gods" that seats are above the proscenium arch and there are allegedly two phenomena at this level with one seat always found in the sitting position by cleaners each morning, and a female figure, reputed to be the victim of a love affair, who through herself over when abandoned by her actor lover.
The theatre has just reopened after a further period of redevelopment lasting nearly two years at a cost of another £7 million. The main improvements and changes are to the stage and theatrical facilities, partly achieved by acquiring the premises of a former bank to one side of the theatre. There have been five improvements as consequence. The main problem had been the absence of an adequate stage wing for major props and to allow dancers the ability to exit in motion. In the previous situation the walls had to be padded to avoid damaging collision, remembering that in order not to affect the onstage performances the walls are painted black with only a "blue" light permitted.
The second addition is a new performance area with seating to be used as a participation teaching studio to encourage the disadvantage, those at school and the elder citizens to have increased interest in theatre. The Olivier suite, opened by his son yesterday, has leather chairs set out for the slide show, but can be adapted for various functions, forming a dining facility, or meeting room, and at the end of which are spectacular glass doors depicting Olivier in one of his major roles. Below this there is the new open plan box office with a separate street entrance and with the former box office area closed. On the same level as the box office and replacing the former order at the counter café there is a bistro, the Café Teatro, and stalls bar, which aims at quality food as it run by the same man who developed the bistro at the English National Opera base in London. The 750ml bottle wine list commenced at £13.95 to £53 for Verve Cliquot Yellow Label. Moet Chandon Brut Imperial was £45 providing an indication of the style and charges. One consequence of this change is that the former basement bar, seating areas and cloaks has become office space.
This reminds that in addition to a set lunch and evening menu at the Playhouse Bistro has some 50 Spanish Tapas, offered at reasonable prices, ideal for bringing a party and sharing a selection. There is also a public lift at the front of house, not in the intended location because a buried bank vault door was found at the original location. The same approach of burial was adopted for the existing vault door as this was less expensive than moving by road transport.
The most important development, designed to attract the highest level of production standards by world class companies is a new fly tower, following on from that created at the Empire Theatre Sunderland, and which enable sets and scenery to be moved around more effectively. There is now nothing to prevent any theatrical production, and given the quality and range of developments it increasingly becomes more mysterious why Liverpool was chosen over Newcastle/Gateshead as the 2008 City of European Culture.
For me the main interest was the behind stage experience where for the present production one can only describe the situation as chaotic and hazardous. The used stage area for Aspects of Love appeared small and difficult and the working conditions for the assistant stage manager prompt was equally challenging. It is evident that for productions of this nature those responsible for sets, props and lightening are as important as the actors. It is a very different situation from the average contemporary production at the Playhouse where the written work and the acting are to the fore and set scenery supplemental.
The behind stage organisation for dressing rooms, green room, rehearsal and other company members, dress, wigs etc was also interesting. There are only two dressing rooms on the ground level one marked David Essex was nearest the stage door and opposite the "Green room" which was disappointing. The theatre has adopted the traditional approach of lights around a mirror to reproduce on stage lighting and heating, with the modern convenience of individual ensuite shower facilities. Other principals have their rooms on the first floor ascending to other levels according to status in the company. The rehearsal area at the top of the theatre building and which we overlooked from a balcony is the same space as the stage. A link between this area and the former bank building is to be added and it was admitted that other development work was still to be completed. The experience, following on from New Work, in Progress, the previous evening has given me a new dimension to the role of the playwright from the minimalist stage at the Playhouse for New Play work in progress, where the eleven actors sat on seats at either side of stage 2 clutching their scripts.
One footnote is that our tour party was joined by someone visually impaired and a mother with a child in a pram, as well as an elderly gentleman wearing a hat and a tie and from their behaviour I suspected this was some disability friendly testing although it they may have been encouraged by the theatre to signal the new inclusive policy reminding of the wheelchair dancers and other disabled participants performing with able bodied to celebrate the reopening of the Royal Festival Hall.
Another footnote is that I learnt the origins of being in the limelight, the avoidance of any whistling and several other theatrical terms
The previous evening I had set off to Newcastle, leaving my car at Heworth and found the city quiet, despite the Thursday late opening. I collected my ticket for the early morning tour noting the new box office and but was told that the ticket for the night's performance would be at the Playhouse. It was not and had to be handwritten. There were fifty seats sold although the impression was of fewer, but a good audience for stage 2. It was a warm evening so beforehand I treated myself to an apple and pineapple drinks in a very tall glass full of ice. I then elected to sit on the front row with my feet on the performance area and was rewarded by being engaged in conversation by a party of four who sat to one side, and by two individuals who I later learnt were the author and an RSC Assistant Director.
I have not seen a work by the writer director Anthony Neilson before whose work is already substantial with, Year of the Family 1994, The Night before Christmas 1995 However Bag 1996, the Censor, 1997, Dirty Laundry, the Düsseldorf Ripper, Edward's Grants Amazing Feats of Loneliness 2002, Stitching 2002 The Lying Kind 2002, Heredity, Twisted 2003, the Wonderful World of Dissocia 2004, The Menu 2006, Home 2006, Penetrator, Realism 2006, Welfare My Love, and White Trash. The dates are known years of first production
In response to my after show question the RSC commissioning director explained that as part of the present touring season of two versions of Macbeth the company are performing The Penelopiad based on what happened to Penelope when Odysseus went off to fight the Trojan War, originally a book by Margaret Atwood who provided the play script performed by the thirteen female members of the travelling company. This left the eleven men of the touring company with either a spare couple of evenings at each of the touring theatres or to perform a work intended for men, This was the brief given to Anthony Neilson. You have 11 biological men, produce a work for them. It was not stated how soon the idea occurred to defer the writing of the work until he had opportunity to get to know the actors over a three week preparation period, although my understanding is that the approach taken is to know the actors and then adapt any prior ideas and work structure to them. Instead of creating one work for performance, the concept of a play in progress is developing in which the response of the audience is being considered and the work adjusted, if appropriate, as well as from the continuous interaction with the actors.
However it was immediately evident that Neilson likes a script rather than a framework in which the actors improvise, and that he likes overall control by being the director as well as writer. The work remains his vision and responsibility which he underlined in the introduction given to the performance. The final work is to be performed at Christmas which explains why the opening interaction between two actors is a variation on the Christmas Carol story and a number of subsequent interactions use this "coat peg", but it is only a coat peg for the deeper theme of communication, in this instance between biological males and which is very different from biological females. The temptation to create a work about men's attitude towards women, when they interact together without the presence of women, is resisted although an early piece is about what happens when a relationship is ended only by one of a couple. Because of my own experience on the internet of having frank and sometimes intimate conversations with strangers who turn out to be not what they first appear to be, I was interested in one sequence where an exchange was reproduced as it happens including the sending of a photograph which then transposes from a female form into a male. It was interesting to hear from the author in relation to the question from another that he is interested in communication conducted from a computer anywhere with anyone anywhere at any time.
Apart from the final interaction the play comprises interactions between two actors, I hope I have remembered this accurately, and this is an interesting decision, because he has not been tempted to explore the same concept using two, three or more actors, to demonstrate how the same individuals in the same set of circumstances react differently when there is one other individual in communication or several.
Ever since that first reopening production of Exquisite Pain. Sophie Calle's performance Art Work in Stage 2 at the Playhouse I have thought about and played about with her basic concept of reconsidering the same event over and over again through the changing perspectives as we layer new experiences upon older ones and in this instance a traumatic one. In Exquisite Pain Calle juxtapositions her revised perspectives, over 20 perhaps 30 stretching over several months to a year, with the accounts of different relatives and friends of their individual experiences of pain physical, mental and emotional. I was interested that the performing company did not consider seeking permission to change the order of these counterpoint experiences to reinforce what I thought the point being made that however traumatic an experience is for one individual it should be viewed against the reality of what happens to others, and that the view of the individual will change over time as will their view of the significance of their experience in relation to that of others.
Because of my short term memory problem and not making notes I was not able to digest sufficient of the work to make any judgement about its overall coherence or to comment on individual components, but I did come away with a sense that I would have liked to have experienced more. My solution would be to repeat the same sequence of interactions three times, repeating first the finale and then ending with the Christmas Carol, recommencing with a Christmas Carole and ending with the "second life" finale, but using a different pair of actors or changing at least one of the actors for the second series and then changing the number of participants for the third series and using the same sequence as the first.
Earlier I mentioned that the Theatre Royal slide show covered something of the history of theatre in Newcastle. Because I was only able to make scribbled notes and so far have not found a comprehensive history of the theatre in Newcastle on the internet these remain preliminary notes and queries for further consideration.
In 1786 reference was made to a Theatre, I think, at Drury Lane Newcastle, named after the famous Drury Lane Theatre in London An information note is that when the 1837 Georgian Theatre Royal was created on its present site the Royal Mail Coach to London took 33 hours.
There was reference to the Gaiety Music Hall at which Charles Dickens performed. The one source of information so far covering vanished theatres is from www.arthurlloyd.co.uk and he makes reference to Grainger Music Hall built in 1838 which became the New Tyne Concert Hall in 1879 and was renamed the Gaiety but it is not said when Arthur Lloyd performed at the theatre in 1862 and 1863. Balambra Music Hall was built and opened in 1848 as a room in the Wheatsheaf pub, renamed the Royal Music Hall, 1859, returning to the Wheatsheaf Music Hall 1864 and the Oxford Music Hall in 1865. The original building was destroyed by fire in 1899 and a new building opened in 1901 and this building was converted to become the Balambra Music Hall in 1962, and is now a pub.
There are said to be only 5 grade one listed theatres outside of London and two of these are in Newcastle. The second has become the Journal Tyne Theatre with a capacity from 100 to 1100. The building was created and opened in 1867 as the Tyne Theatre and Opera House and its external frontage remains today much as it was. And structurally the auditorium also remains substantially the same. There was a serious fire in 1985 over Christmas which gutted the fly tower and there were fears for its future with constant threats of closure, now protected to an extent by its listed one building status as in 2002 developers cast their eyes on the site and English Heritage gave it an at risk status. There is a 15 year lease and the theatre appears to be mainly used for tribute bands. Arthur Lloyd performed in 1887. Ultimately it will be the public who will determine if the building is to continue as a performance theatre in the longer run. One issue is whether the musical hall, the variety show will ever regain its popularity
The Newcastle Hippodrome was built in 1909 as a skating rink with a large white dome at the top and therefore known at the White City. In 1901 it was reopened as a Cinema but the management of the cinema next door objected so it became the Dreamland Ballroom De Luxe and lasted until 1912. It then became a variety theatre known as the Hippodrome with the dome removed. It was closed in 1933 and it is said a Pizza Palace stands on the site Frankie and Benny's with a car park above.
The Moss Empire Theatre in Newgate Street was built in 1890 and rebuilt in 1903 by Frank Matcham who also had great influence on the internal structure of the Theatre Royal. The theatre was demolished in 1963. The site is next to the Rose and Crown in Newgate Street.
The Palace Theatre was built in the Haymarket in 1895, rebuilt in 1940's and then demolished in 1961. There are now single story utility shops such as Oxfam on the present site which suggests site development was planned.
The provider of much of this information and the web site is Donald Autry who worked at the Palace Theatre as a stage manager before national service in the 1950's.
I have previously covered the development of the University Theatre into the Playhouse with its Gulbenkian studio and its transformation into the home of the Northern Theatre Company. It has become my theatrical spiritual home, in much he same way as others of a young generation found the Live Theatre, on the Quayside, formed out of a 16th century warehouse in 1856, showcasing contemporary and experimental work, promoting local talent coupled with a Hot Club and a popular eaterie. After closure coinciding with the reopening of the Playhouse the Live Theatre is reopening in September after a £5.3 million extension and redevelopment.
Thirty Years ago when the RSC commenced to visit Newcastle it used the People's Theatre which is near Jesmond Dene on the coast road out of Newcastle. Recently it to has been refurbished to create a 500 seat auditorium and a 90 seat studio and is now recognised as the premier amateur theatre in Northern England with the objective of staging a new production each month.
The Bruvers has been a community theatre group in Newcastle for thirty five years taking performances to schools, community centres, nurseries, youth clubs, play scheme sites, pubs, clubs, village halls, church halls, day centres, sheltered housing accommodation, hospitals and care homes and colleges. Now it is to have a home at a new theatre, in the round, seating 180 people at 34 Lime Street Ouseburn Newcastle, and which opened in July. There are therefore six theatrical spaces identified in Newcastle in 2007. The Theatre Royal, the Northern Theatre Company Playhouse. Live Theatre, The Journal Tyne Theatre, the People's Theatre and the Bruvers Theatre in the Round. I also assume the two universities will have their own theatrical spaces and earlier in the year, or was it last year lunch time plays were put on at a city restaurant.
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