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Breathing life into Rose theatre
From the High Street, Rose of Kingston theatre is still closed and quiet, with white stickers covering the windows. The only sign of activity is a few builders drifting in and out of the yard, clad in hard hats and florescent bibs.
But inside, the £6.4million fit-out of a state-of-the-art theatre is going strong, with sparks flying, machinery whirring and workmen swarming around the labrynthine theatre like ants over a honeypot.
The Surrey Comet was granted an exclusive tour of the theatre, so I bravely donned a hard hat and sturdy boots and ventured into the building.
When I last looked round the theatre in the autumn, it was an empty concrete and breeze block building. It boasted an awe-inspiring bare auditorium but was too austere and quiet - it felt like more like an abandoned ruin than a living theatre.
Communist overtones abounded with breeze block walls and concrete floors, and in the lobby a huge circular well stretching up through three floors cried out for a staircase.
Looking up, a circular skylight above showed you how much was left to build. St George, the developer of Charter Quay, finished their obligation to build a theatre "shell" in 2002, and left the rest to the visitor's imagination.
But since the council pledged another £3.4million to the project just over a year ago so building work could finally get started, the Theatre Trust has been busy. Project manager Rosie Hoare has been mobilising an army, and in recent months the mammoth task of fitting out the theatre has launched into action.
In the early months, the main tasks have been the wiring, plumbing, sound and light engineering and air conditioning. The fit-out team hopes to be completely finished by winter, when they will hand the theatre back to the artistic team so rehearsals for the opening show will begin.
Guided by Rosie and with our path lit by upright florescent strip lamps trailing power cables around the building, we dodged the builders, jungle of scaffold and snakelike wires on the floor to have a proper look at the progress.
We start our tour in the concrete corridors around the main auditorium, with the plan to look at studio spaces and backstage before heading to the main space. A lot of giant air conditioning units and big silvery ducts are lying around in various stages of installation, some are stacked and packed, some are above our heads already.
The bigger the air conditioning units, the better the acoustics will be, apparently - and for a theatre fit for Sir Peter Hall's productions with the trademark atmosphere of the Rose, that is a crucial bit of engineering. At the moment the place echoes only with building activity, hammering and machinery motors.
We go up a flight of concrete fire escape steps to the gallery space. Scaffold hides the raked ceiling which will eventually add to fine acoustics. The space will be used for intimate music concerts, talks and art exhibitions, which will get natural light from skylights in the roof.
Just along, the studio theatre which will be used for Kingston University students' productions has been blocked off from the main stairwell area. Builders on scaffold above our heads stopped us going in because of some engineering work going on in the rafters, but from the door it looks to be an exciting 200- seat space.
Then we take a look in what will be the main auditorium's cosy lighting and stage management box - the brain of the performance which will soon be fronted by sound-proofed glass and full of mixing desks with flashing lights. We look down on the expanse of scaffold filling the theatre below - with a glimpse of a half-constructed plank stage.
We head downstairs to the seating of the main auditorium, with bundles of wires running around all the walls. Several of the breeze blocks seem to be missing - but apparently this is because nifty speakers will go in that fit the missing blocks. Some of the blocks have also been replaced by special sound-softening surfaces - all adding to the acoustic bliss Sir Peter Hall demands.
The sound desk will be at the back here - so the sound operator can hear a pin drop the same as the audience.
It is clear as we look around that the managers have learned a lot of lessons from the Rose's In The Raw season in 2004, where a performance of Shakespeare's As You Like It was staged in the unfinished space.
One lesson was that more backstage space was needed for creative work, wardrobe, props and meetings. Promptly we are shown around a network of unfinished rooms ("There will be a wall here" is a common phrase on this tour) where creative types can get busy.
Another lesson was the staircase and floorspace issue. With seating for up to 1,000 people in the main space and 300 in the studio, people flow could quickly turn into a people crush at the end of the night.
To solve this, the stairwell is having a slice taken off it on the first floor to add more floorspace. The staircase, instead of being a spiral, will be two sweeping tiers. At the moment, a builder's platform lift occupies the stairwell, carrying heaps of materials up and down with a loud whirring.
Next is one of the theatre's finest points - a specially-designed lighting rig that hangs like a spider's web high above the main auditorium. This fine metal structure was made for state-of-the-art lighting to hang from, and cost about £100,000. It is riddled with wire mesh walkways for technicians with a good head for heights.
Sections can lift out to lower any scenery needed down to the stage, an ingenious touch that also creates a simple flying system. Not that the Rose needs a flying system, we are reminded, this is a theatre of the imagination and it does not matter a jot that flats were built above the theatre and the fly tower inadvertently done away with. But it is good to have a flexible canvas.
Down and around backstage, we see samples of blue paint on the breeze-block walls. The breeze blocks are staying, apparently to give the theatre an unpretentious, modern and minimalist feel. They are cheap too. At least the floor will get an oak finish, and we can rest assured that theatre design giant Alison Chitty is overseeing the final look of the Rose.
We look at where the toilets will be and the actors' dressing rooms. They currently look like concrete torture cells, but in a few months they will boast banks of mirrors and dressing tables, and actors' possessions, flowers and cards all over them.
And finally into the main theatre. We walk on to the stage, and even now you can feel the intimacy and atmosphere of this incredible auditorium with its three tiers of seating and floor pit in front of the low, almond-shaped stage.
It might be full of scaffold now, but at least it is finally full of activity - so different from the ghost-like feeling of last autumn. On opening night, with a painted, buffed and well-lit space, a magical production and banks and banks of people, it will be awesome.
6:23pm Friday 8th June 2007
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