On a beautiful sunny day, 14 of us enjoyed a hearty lunch at the Dirty Duck in Stratford-upon-Avon. Inspired by the pub’s link with the world of theatre we then made our way to the Royal Shakespeare Theatre for a ‘Behind the Scenes’ tour of the main theatre and the Swan Theatre. We were joined by two more old codgers and then split into two groups for the tour.
What a fascinating visit! We had two excellent guides who took us all round the two theatres and other parts of the building. We learned so many interesting things.
For example
- That the RSC is the second largest employer in Stratford with about 800 employees. Plus more freelancers and contract workers for various productions.
- That the multi-award winning “Matilda the Musical” started in Stratford, is still touring in the UK and other countries, and is still the RSC’s main money earner.
- That in 1928 there was an open competition for designs for the new theatre. It attracted worldwide interest and was judged anonymously. When the winner was revealed to be (shock! horror!) a woman 😳, called Elisabeth Scott, it was too much for many of the misogynous commentators of the day (so not much has changed then, we said).
- That the RSC make all the wigs they require in-house. The wigs all use real human hair. We learnt that grey hair is very valuable for wig making as it is the hardest and most expensive to obtain! Some members perked up at the prospect of earning a bit of money on the side – till they learned that it had to be grown very long before it was marketable.
After the hour-long tour, we spent some time looking at the excellent exhibition. We left the RSC with all our (grey) hair (those of us who have any, that is), keen to encourage friends and family to sign up for the tour themselves.
MIRTH 