New Stratford theatre as Shakespeare would like it

The Royal Shakespeare Company's newly refurbished home is the ultimate in user-friendly theatre design – and it has links to Dublin's Spire and the Aviva stadium, writes MARY RUSSELL

NO MATTER how good the play is, and at Stratford- upon-Avon’s famous theatre it nearly always is, there’s still that moment of desperation engendered by the length of the queue for the women’s loo.

But not any more, because the Royal Shakespeare Company’s redesigned theatre has 46 ladies loos. There is also space for 12 wheelchairs, steps have been replaced with ramps and, what about this, all the actors’ dressing rooms have small balconies overlooking the Avon with Wi-Fi in each dressing room – plus, special devices are in place to retain overhead scenery so that stagehands can work safely beneath.

But this is how it should be for Britain’s Shakespeare showcase, the RSC theatre, redesigned, rebuilt and refurbished over seven years at a cost of £113m (€134.5m).

“Our aim,” says director Micheal Boyd, at the recent press day, “is to make this a welcoming place, where we give Shakespeare back to the people.” Though the curtainless proscenium arch is still there, it tends to create an invisible but very clear no-go area between the play and the people so the addition of two thrusts on each side of the stage means the actors can walk into the middle of the audience and talk intimately and directly to them. The back rows of the gods have been taken away in order to bring the remaining higher, cheaper seats closer to the action. In fact, no seat in the 1,000-seat auditorium is more than 15m from the stage, in contrast to the original 27m.

Jonathon Slinger, whose Richard IIIat Stratford was as conniving and deliciously evil as only that much-maligned king can be, is full of praise for his upgraded workplace: "The thrust is marvellous. It steals a march on 3D film because cinematic technology isn't yet up to bringing actors right in to the audience whereas with the thrust stage the actor can come up to you, lean towards you, look into your eyes. After all, it's that sort of audience Shakespeare was writing for in his day." No Eng-lit pundits getting between the actor, the words and the audience.

Last month, on the unofficial opening day, there was a host of staff members, all wearing big welcome badges, milling around ready to answer questions about the whole project. Engineer Andrew Wyse had been working on it for some six years.

What was that like? “For us, it’s about machinery,” he said. “We’ve built hangers above the stage that will support 20 tonnes of stage-sets and which can move scenery at 2.5m a second.” Or as Michael Boyd, put it: “We can bring down the heavenly stars or God in a split second.” The engineers also had to protect the theatre from flooding, lying as it does so close to the River Avon and the below-stage area goes down 7m below the river. This is to create a working space where actors and stagehands can walk about upright. As part of the move towards accessibility and transparency, huge sliding double doors on the street side of the theatre will allow scenery to be moved in and out in full view of the public. The teak floorboards from the original theatre have been conserved and relaid in the foyer so that anyone and everyone can say they have trod the boards of the RSC.

This project has been a major collaboration between engineers, architects and the theatre – with a few Irish links. Ian Ritchie Architects, who worked on the RSC, gave Dublin its Spire, and the engineering company, Buro Happold, have worked on the Aviva stadium. Theatre consultants Charcoalblue were tasked with providing suitable seating – there are 24 types in the auditorium – and were mindful that while looking for comfortable seats they had to beware of making them so comfortable that people would fall asleep during the play. Charcoalblue were also responsible for the innovative riverside walkway which leads from the theatre to Holy Trinity Church where Shakespeare was christened and is buried.

Other small theatrical touches include a period chair which, when you sit on it, booms out one of fifty Shakespearian insults pre-recorded by RSC actors. The Reading Room, where punters can retire to read the play they’ve come to see – or just sit – has dangling from the ceiling thousands of folio leaves which have burst forth from a cornucopia in the corner.

Then, when I went to retrieve my coat, I noticed the cloakroom had a row of theatrical costumes hanging in one corner all tagged. The one I randomly chose to look at read: Sinead Cusack, Lady MacBeth, 1986. Set designer: Bob Crowley.

See rsc.org.uk