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Dateline: 7th April, 2004 The Whitehall Farce Gives Way to the Trafalgar Studios
The larger space contains approaching 400 seats and a smaller one about 100 according to the publicists, or 84 if you listen to the architect who is actually building it. The construction is an amazingly swift process as a 650-seat theatre becomes two smaller studios in a period of about nine weeks. The launch was attended by representatives of two theatres that are currently desperately in need of London homes. They will be following each other into the larger studio with confirmed hits. First, the Royal Shakespeare Company's acclaimed production of Othello will be transferring from the Swan Theatre in Stratford via Japan. Its director, Greg Doran attended the opening with his Iago, Sir Antony Sher. Doran was very enthusiastic about the larger space, pointing out that the footprint of this studio almost exactly replicates that of the Swan. He felt that this "intimate, claustrophobic space" would be a terrific home for his production of Othello. The other company that might be making considerable use of the Trafalgar Studios is the Young Vic. They are transferring their hit Langston Hughes musical, Simply Heavenly, into the larger studio to follow Othello. They had announced some time ago that they were going in for a major, two-year refurbishment of their own theatre and therefore they will be obliged to squat, both in London and around Britain. Director David Lan said that in London, "a 400 seat Theatre is the holy grail". In fact, he pointed out that there are two in existence but The Mousetrap and The Woman in Black have been occupying them for the last fifteen years. He felt sure that this "surprising space" would prove a ready-made home for West End transfers from The Swan, the Young Vic, the Royal Court and the Almeida. The architectural team, Tim Foster and John Muir, were kind enough to spare the British Theatre Guide a few minutes to talk about their new creation. They are an interesting combination as they work separately in different sectors of Theatre but have come together for this project. Between them in recent years, they have refurbished amongst others the 5,035 seat Hammersmith Apollo, the Adelphi, the Tricycle, the Theatre Royals in Brighton and Norwich and the Salisbury Playhouse. With this experience, they are confident that despite the incredibly short period in which they have to work they will come up with something really special in time for the opening in late May. As they are keen to emphasise, one of the reasons why they will be able to do this is that the building consent from Westminster Council has required that the alterations to this Grade II listed building be reversible. As Tim Foster puts it "the lightweight method of construction celebrates the temporary nature of theatre and can easily be removed to restore the theatre to its original form". Howard Panter of ATG is equally enthusiastic about both spaces. The smaller studio will take rather longer to complete and is likely to open in September. Both are incredibly flexible with the possibility of playing in a normal configuration but also in the round or with the audience on three sides of a thrust stage. While the two inaugural companies might be expected to make good use of the Trafalgar Studios, neither of them will be permanently sited there. The expectation is that an assortment of plays will transfer in when they need a smaller central London space than is otherwise on offer. Judging by the number of producers that seemed desperate for small and mid-sized theatres it seems highly likely that they will be always be occupied. Please note that all three Archive indices are very long and will therefore take some time to download.
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