Theatre Design & Technology - Summer 1987 - 17

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coming up with new ideas and casting. But in the Swan
we do small Shakespeare, and it's a different kettle of fish
when we do it because we haven't got the pressures of a
vast main house. The approach can be very different and
all sorts of contemporary plays can be done, and so they
are as free as with any brand new play. They're not living
up to anyone else's standard or what Peter Brook did with
A Midsummer Night's Dream fifteen years ago and all
that. Like any director in any other theatre, I suppose,
they're free to tackle it as they will. You can only say that
it's the main stage and Shakespeare that restrict the
directors.
There's always a different feeling to a production
when you start sticking it into a vast theatre rather than
sticking with a place where you can get a few people
huddled round - 400,200. It's always a better feeling, it's
more casual, and it's nicer to work in. That is not to say
that the work is casual, or any less professional. Most of
our good work at the moment is coming out of our
smaller houses.
J.S.: As stage manager, what do you love most about the
Swan and what do you hate?
M.D.: From a stage manager's point of view, it's nice;
something very simple, like rehearsal, can be easily accomplished there. The way we have done rehearsals up
until this year has been a bit haphazard. We've rehearsed
in all sorts of little rooms and dark places. But if you
think about it, that's where the play is born. We give it a
very unworthy home for its first six weeks. At the Swan,

we're allowed to go onstage straight away because there
are no sets, so the stage is generally available to us to
turn onto the first thing in the morning. That is a terrific
help, to be able to stage a play in the space that it's
actually going to perform in.
The problem is that we've used all our space to create a
theatre, and that has left literally no backstage. There
are two glorified cupboards on the sides, and that's where
we make our entrances and exits. They're quite shocking. From behind them, you have no contact with the
stage itself. They're behind these big, heavy fire doors,
and the only contact we have with backstage are the
monitor and television screen, which is secondary contact. Actors who enter from backstage have to come on
using these monitors for their cue, and that's not very
good, because they're hearing it second best.
We have to share our backstage area with the main
house, so when actors from The Rover are back there
doing quick changes, for instance, the Dream cast might
also be doing quick changes in the same space, and it's
every man for himself. There's one narrow area shared
by two productions.
We are going to discover lots more problems as time
goes on. I think the problems will show up as restrictions
when we try to open out physically, as we always do, as
we have done in The Other Place. We won't be able to,
because at the end of the day there isn't any extra space.
Also, the lighting is at a higher angle in the Swan than
the main stage. Over the years we will probably start to
add bars and various things in front of the balconies to
get some lower lighting.
TD&T· SU 1 IER 1987

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