Village Squire, 1979-05, Page 25THEATRE
Theatre London
a real show place
since renovations
After doing without theatre for a year,
Theatre London patrons seem to be making
up for lost time.
Getting tickets for Theatre London
shows can be a tough task these days. For
the recent run of Same Time Next Year
nearly all seats for Saturday nights were
sold out t<iefore the run even began. Ticket
selection for a Friday night performance 10
days in advance was limited to only two
choices for a couple of side-by-side seats.
The scarcity of tickets for Theatre
London is a good reason for buying
season's tickets. Theatre London has
always had a heavy subscription list even
in the old days when it had one theatre with
1100 seats to fill. Today, with 850 seats to
fill in the New Grand.•ckets are even
tougher to find.
Attending theatre at the new complex is
a comfortable experience. The building
since its facelift (really a near complete
rebuilding) is a functional and stunning
showplace. At the front door one is greeted
with a large lobby area wide and deep to
allow people to line up for tickets inside
where it's warm and dry. That was
certainly a pleasure on the evening we
were there because it was raining in
torrents outside.
A large central staircase serves the many
floors from which are entrances for the
studio. main stage and balcony of the
Grand. Traffic flow is smooth with few
bottlenecks. Coatchecks, washrooms and
boutiques are all conveniently located just
off the edge of the main central staircase.
The theatres themselves offer a
complete contrast in atmosphere and in
purpose. Centrepiece of the new complex
of course is the new Grand Theatre. It's
been shrunken from its former size but now
provides a more intimate theatre that still
is one of the larger regional theatres in the
country. The renovation project is shown to
be most successful here. The object of the
project was to build a modern new working
plant to replace the creaking and cracking
old Grand which simply didn't meet
modern needs in theatre. At the same
time, the grace and beauty of the old Grand
was to be retained to connect the modern
theatre with the past. It's a tricky job but in
the Grand it's been completely successful.
The new theatre is completely dominat-
ed by the old stage house the only thing
that was retained from the old Grand. The
huge stage that once allowed them to stage
charriot races from Ben Hur with real
horses seems if anything even larger today
because it takes up the entire front of the
theatre. The distance to the back of the
theatre is only 52 feet in the orchestra
portion of the theatre. Sight lines and
accoustics are excellent.
The famous arch and the mural on the
arch make sitting waiting for the show an
interesting experience. The artwork in the
painting has been spruced up after long
years of darkening. The colour scheme of
the theatre has been carefully chosen to
co-ordinate the old painting in with the rest
of the theatre. The walls are covered with a
flocked wall paper with velvet covering the
entrances into the theatre itself.
Seating, according to Theatre London
spokesman Rob Wellan was chosen for
comfort. We found the seats were for the
most part comfortable although leg room in
the balcony was a little short for a
six-footer.
For those used to having to take a long
trip to get from balcony seats to washrooms
or lounges during intermissions, the new
Grand is a delight. A large lounge with a
choice of a bar at one end or a snackbar
serving coffee and soft drinks at the other
and overlooking Richmond Street through
the glass walls at the front of the building
is situated just outside the doors leading to
balcony seating.
From the main floor entrance it's a walk
downstairs to the McManus Studio theatre.
While luxury of the kind one expects at the
Stratford Festival or Toronto's Royal
Alexandra theatre is what one finds in the
large Grand, in the McManus the
atmosphere is more like the kind of thing
you'd expect to find in a small
experimental theatre in Toronto, although
its totally modern.
McManus is designed as an experiment-
al theatre. The seating arrangement can be
altered to provide any kind of stage area.
The ceiling extends up a full two floors to
give plenty of scope in experimental
staging techniques.
We visited the theatre a while back to
see the one-man show Oscar Remembered
by Maxim Mazumbar. The theatre seating
was arranged rather routinely that evening
across one side of the theatre providing a
traditional theatrical setting. For other
shows it can be maneuvered around the
stage for an arena stage effect or just about
any combination a director could conceive
of.
The Studio is the home of many
productions for children as well as one man
and small -cast shows, experimental shows
and provides a home base for Theatre
London's Young Company which tours
shows out to schools throughout the
western Ontario region.
On the evening we were there it, like the
Grand, was packed. Its plays for children
like The Marvellous Magical Circus of
Paddington Bear have been a smash
success with local young theatre goers.
The combination of the traditional fare
offered in the Grand, the experimental and
children's work in the MacManus Studio
and the modern popular hits from around
the world being performed across town as
the Centre Stage theatre, now gives
theatre patrons in London a greater variety
than most cities of the size on the
continent.
And all of us, inside and outside the city,
benefit.
Niov, t°(41.0e
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