Making a Scene
Greenwich magazine
If blood started dripping through the ceiling of your workplace the last thing you'd probably do is shrug and move your laptop but for the Greenwich Theatre production team, whose office is under the stage, such gorey goings-on are all part of the job.
Behind the scenes of this local landmark are plenty of potentially unsettling sights - trap doors, ropes for fake hangings, even, allegedly, a ghost, the Grey Lady, whose bottom half is said to walk through the ceiling of the café where the stage once was.
There have been performances on the site since 1885, originally mainly musical hall with famous variety performer Max Wall among the featured talent. The present theatre though is mostly Sixties built. "We've got a listed wall, not a listed building," explains executive director James Haddrell.
Despite its relatively modern construction it turns out the design is far from ideal. "It's a nightmare actually," says Haddrell. "First of all, the stage isn't square; there's a corner missing against an outside wall and touring theatres anticipate a certain shape. Also the ceiling's not high enough for sets to fly in and out and we have almost no wing space." He shows me the backdrop that creates a passageway for actors to pass from the opposite side of the stage unseen as there's only one entrance/exit, then, the removable panel in one wall. Sets have to be winched in here because the stage is two floors above street level. One plus point is the stage's 'thrust' shape jutting into the audience which creates a more intimate feel.
Despite the challenges, Greenwich doesn't shrink from ambitious stagings. In one production numerous hatches opened in the stage, for another it was covered in real turf. "There was sand throughout the building for about six months after," says Haddrell.
The aforementioned blood leak came during technical rehearsals for the Duchess of Malfi which had particularly complex special effects. The stage was even raised so the actors could be lit from underneath to enhance the Gothic feel.
"For the audience we just want a moment, we don't want them to get a sense that it took three weeks to get it right," says Haddrell. "Some of the most elaborate things on stage are the most incidental."
Touring productions are sent a plan of Greenwich's tricky layout so they can make sure their sets fit but that doesn't always prevent mistakes. Haddrell says the company that planned to present Stephen King's thriller Misery in a revolving house forgot about the backstage radiators!
While touring shows form the bulk of Greenwich performances the theatre has started to produce its own work again after a hiatus of several years resulting from loosing Arts Council funding in the late nineties.
"Back five years ago we were just a building with a stage that was available for companies to come and show work but now we also make work and go out to different spaces and do cultural activities," says Haddrell. "Bringing shows in is great and there's some great work but the staff get a real buzz from doing our own."
Funding is still an issue; the recession has put paid to the bulk of corporate sponsorship and grants, but the theatre now manages about four annual home-grown productions. Last year it was able to put on a free summer show, plus four classic dramas backed by a film company that released them on DVD.
"Finding funding should be about ten percent of my job and it's probably half," says Haddrell. The theatre had to make two redundancies this year and some multi-tasking has resulted so you're now, for instance, more likely to buy a ticket from one of the back stage crew. But Haddrell says this and the new policy of staff introducing performances on stage has had some unexpected benefits. "We have found, because people recognise us, in the interval or after the show they come up and say 'I liked that' or 'I didn't like that' or 'why don't you serve this in the café?'. It's good because it can be easy for theatres to slip into the passive cinema experience."
While funding it tight, audiences have increased but Haddrell says the theatre would not limit itself to safe crowd-pleasers just to fill the coffers.
"Over the last three years we've built greater artistic credibility than we've had for a long time and we don't want to jeopardise that. We've programmed more new writing and more cross-arts activities that move into dance, more stuff for children and more world cultural events. We've just pushed the boundaries of what the theatre can be."
One of its biggest coops is a new musical due to open in February or March which it has nurtured through its arts funding programme. Drive, Ride, Walk is a tale of three Londoners whose lives intercept during one day. It will be produced by Greenwich and open here before touring the capital. "The show is just amazing, an a cappella in nine part harmony," enthuses Haddrell.
The big annual home-grown event is the panto, this year Cinderella, which has been in the works since Spring. Strangely, I learn, some industrial espionage is involved: "There's a funny period in about March when all the theatres phone each other and have cagey conversations because if we're all doing Aladdin we're going to look a bit stupid!"
Haddrell is not a fan of the big celebrity-led pantos which he says, though glitzy, are often under-rehearsed: "Our pantos get a proper four weeks of rehearsal and we don't use the last ten years of costumes, we make a new show."
I get a peek at the Cinderella outfits in production. The costume room is an intriguing one, filled with discarded props from previous shows. I recognise a Harrison Clock from the theatrical debut of Longitude and am intrigued by panto-related boxes with labels like 'Paul's I love burgers trim'. On a dummy is a red PVC number with decorative lips which I'm told is destined to grace one of the ugly sisters and their ample bosom. "44EE, that's the size they're going to be, I've decided," says costume maker Sades Robinson, who's running up Dandini's jacket at the time. She uses no patterns but works from the designer's sketches. Leafing through this book of weird and wonderful outfits I discover the red frock was inspired by Lady Gaga. Robinson says she was tempted to instead recreate the singer's infamous meat dress. "It would be much easier for me to just wrap them up in streaky bacon each night!"
With a gruelling 12 shows a week between November 25 and January 9 the costumes need to be robust, particularly as the ugly sisters have eight outfits per performance, some ripped off not in a dressing room but a quick change area near the stage.
As for Cinderella's sudden switch from rags to ballgown, "easy" says Haddrell, but he's not about to reveal how it's done. "Cinderella's transformation is always magical. It's the bit when all the staff, whatever they're doing say, 'I'll just go and have a look.'"
He does admit to the odd hairy moment at the theatre when trickier special effects haven't gone quite as planned. One hanging scene in the 80s nearly gave the theatre a second ghost. "The appropriate procedure is to have a code word, which isn't 'Oh sh*t', for if the rope is pulling too tight," Haddrell explains. "For whatever reason the actor in question, who was quite famous, didn't deliver the word, he passed out. Luckily the team quickly realised."
A more light-hearted slip-up came in last year's comedy festival when in the middle of Rob Newman's routine about fuel shortages half the lights went out. A localised dip in the national grid was responsible but it looked like part of the act.
"The audience generally do trust you. So unless the lights go out totally or an actor falls off the stage they believe whatever has happened was meant to," says Haddrell.
He'd like the same feeling to extend to the theatre's repertoire.
"I want people to trust us enough to try something new and I think we're getting there.
"That's what I love most about going to the theatre – a show that takes me by surprise, in a good way."
He says his fantasy wow-factor production would be if he could get the rights to stage Doctor Who at Greenwich: "It's the Holy Grail; a show for any age. Only pantomime really comes close."
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