The public comes first. This was the message of Royal Shakespeare Company artistic director Michael Boyd at the opening of the transformed theatre in Stratford upon Avon. The ethos of the £112.8 million project is “art for all”.
“We wanted more democracy in this space and in the space around it”, Boyd explains, standing on the new stage surrounded by a three-tiered horseshoe of seating that Shakespeare would recognise. “The RSC serves the community, so as part of our transformation we had to make it a more interesting public domain.”
After five years, the Royal Shakespeare Theatre has come in on budget and on time. It is on the way to being fully funded, with £3.5 million still to find. Some 10,000 individuals have made donations. Actors Patrick Stewart and David Tennant have spearheaded schemes that have raised more than
£1 million. David Tennant’s fan club raised £5,000 to sponsor stalls seat number C50 in his name.
This is a project that couldn’t be entertained now in the face of the coalition’s cuts. As much as £53 million in public funds have come from the National Lottery via Arts Council England and another £35.9 million from the West Midlands Regional Development Agency. The RSC recognises it is under enormous pressure to repay the public in kind.
Its record is already pretty good. Roughly 50 per cent funded by Arts Council England, last year it worked with 1,300 schools and 25,000 students; 90 per cent of its audiences came from a three-hour radius of Stratford rather than from abroad; 16,000 people took part in RSC events and 9,000 under-25s benefited from £5 tickets.
But this only means that the “transformation project” has to up the social ante. “We were asked to meet the requirements of the directors, the actors, audiences and the town”, explains architect Simon Erridge of Bennetts. The town’s requests had become paramount from the first public consultations in 2005.
It would have been easier to demolish the 1932 building designed by Elisabeth Scott, along with the remnants of the previous Shakespeare Memorial Theatre of 1879, and start again. However, that was deemed wasteful, both financially and emotionally. Apart from losing the much-loved Swan Theatre, which backs on to Scott’s stage, it would have been squandering history. They determined instead to “respect the ghosts in the walls”.
But some of those walls were too far from the stage. People sitting at the back couldn’t hear or, in some places, see the actors. Television screens were once deployed to reveal Juliet on her balcony. In Michael Boyd’s book, this did not add up to “art for all”.
By building a new auditorium within the old, the furthest distance from the stage has been halved. A whisper can be heard. “There’s not a bad seat in the house”, says Boyd (although there are some bar stool-style seats at the back of the dress circle where undemocratically long legs are required.) Meanwhile, the original walls have become an artistic feature of the foyer.
“This has to be a welcoming building to visit, even if you are not coming to the theatre”, adds RSC executive director Vikki Heywood. There’s a new rooftop restaurant, exhibition spaces and plenty of toilets. Local amateur groups will be trying out the stages and schools (90 per cent state) will take part in learning and performance. For the next four months, until the official opening of the RSC’s 2011, 50th anniversary season in April, there will be lots of public events testing it.
The Scott Theatre had been designed with space to meander beside the Avon. But an extension reduced public access. The other side, facing the town, was featureless. So down has come the obstruction, opening up new and wheelchair-friendlier riverside walks and terraces. Facing the town are doors on to a new square and entertainment space. Overlooking it all, including the Shakespearian landmarks, is a tower. To critical eyes it may not be thing of total beauty, but for just £2.50 you can ride to the top and enjoy the view.
What about the actors and the big names who pull in audiences? What’s in this democratic space for them? “You mean pampered, spoilt, solitary?” quips Boyd. There are no star dressing rooms any more. They are all much the same and look like modest cruise ship cabins with balconies overlooking the river. Designed for sharing, they have no en suite shower or lavatory.
“The staff canteen is another good idea”, says actor Nick Asbury. “I used to walk through the town and people would say hello, because actors are recognisable, but I didn’t know if they also worked for the company. Now everyone who works here comes to the same place to eat.”
Still, Boyd, who is already accommodating the £1million reduction in Arts Council funding this year partly by freezing wages and staffing, recognises the lure of star names and would not turn his back on them. “I’ve absolutely no objection to them subsidising our work by taking our top whack rather than the market rate.” It’s equality to the end.
