Behind the Stage Door: Exploring York Theatre Royal, Part III

Tue 30 Oct 2012

n a setting of mushroom-inspired architecture, stuffed with ghost stories, superstitions and hidden confectionary in every crevice, the story of one of York’s most significant artistic hubs has almost played out to its final act in parts I and II of the ‘Exploring York Theatre Royal’ series. Yet before the orchestra pack their bags and the heavy crimson curtains meet on this tour led by Head of Communications, Abbi Wright, more faces of this shapeshifting space and one of York’s most glamorous secrets must be revealed.

Steeped in Victorian tradition, the Theatre Royal auditorium as we see it today still rings with the opulent charm of yesteryear with the fixed proscenium stage, rich red seats and those secluded stage boxes from which audiences would enjoy variety acts, farces, musicals and the cycle of performances presented by rep companies. But whilst the audience may be able to sprawl contentedly in their seats, the performers on the York Theatre Royal stage are tasked to work extra hard, manoeuvring their way across what is one of the highest raked (or sloped) stages in the country. Raked so greatly because of skewed sight sightlines in the theatre, many companies, including Birmingham Royal Ballet, have to take extra rehearsals upon this stage so as to avoid any ballerina accidentally sliding into the orchestra pit.

Yet whilst the auditorium itself may still be enraptured in the Victorian past, behind the stage lurks an even earlier period of history. For here sits a reminder of York’s all-pervading medieval past with a Roman well situated below the stage boards on which so many actors have tread. Moving behind the stage, a wall reveals arrow slits thought to be left from the days when York defended the Royal Mint. Set up prior to the Viking invasions in England, coins, and most famously farthings, continued to be produced in our city throughout the Saxon and Norman period making it surely York’s hottest spot for a metal detector roam ever.

Therefore very literally built on money in a time of land struggles, another part of the theatre that shares a very similar history is the De Grey Rooms. Snuggled alongside the theatre and today used primarily as a rehearsal space, the De Grey rooms, built in 1841-2 and designed by famed railway architect George Townsend Andrews, were originally used as a social and events meeting place for the Yorkshire Hussars. Named after Thomas Philip de Grey, a colonel-commandant of the regiment, the rooms later played host to a programme of non-military revels, concerts, balls and dances whilst also serving at one stage as a doctor’s surgery (certainly the poshest doctors' I've ever seen). Purchased by the York Conservation Trust in 2005 and given a pricey face-lift, the upstairs ballroom, a heady glittering space of twinkling chandeliers and Disney-like fantasy, is now used as a space for weddings, functions and swing dancing.

And for such a sparkling space that undoubtedly owes itself to the little-needed excuse to get glammed up, the theatre’s costume department is nearby at hand with the basement of the De Grey Rooms opening up to a treasure trove of theatrical outfitting. Lining the descent to the costume cellar, sketches bursting with colour and imaginative extravagance preface the mine of costumes, big and small, understated and overstated, which line rack after rack in this secret little girl’s paradise.

And with that the curtain goes down on The Yorker's nosy around of York Theatre Royal. But this is most certainly not the final act for this building with ambitious plans already in place for a major renovation that will change the face of this nationally acclaimed theatre once again for the 21st century.

Read the article on The Yorker website.