To the Mercury Theatre! …early on Friday morning. I was booked in as part of the Heritage Open Weekend on a freebie guided tour.
This was only my second visit to the Mercury. The first was also a freebie during a local elections hustings. At least I know what my price pinch point is.
I really rather enjoyed the morning in the company of a couple of incredibly friendly guides. I really should make the effort to take in some of the shows.
My issue, as ever with everything is the cost. £30 probably isn’t an unreasonable price to pay for any theatre performance. It’s just that in the back of my mind I still think that most theatre seats can be bought for a tenner.
I still only paid a grubby fiver for the performance of As You Like It at Shakespeare’s Globe earlier in the week. I find it hard to understand the economics of the Globe and how a £5 Groundlings ticket hasn’t increased since the Globe first opened more than a quarter of a century ago.
Anyway back to the guided tour of the Mercury.
My name was called out by the lovely host. Another fella put his hand up.
Hang on, mate. That’s me not you.
It turns out that within a group of a dozen or so people you really can have two blokes sharing the same slightly obscure second name.
It was something of a whistle-stop guided tour. We were told on many occasions that a more considered look around the theatre can be taken if you are prepared to hand over your shekels.
Our first stop was the new performance space. The Mercury has been pretty much transformed over the past five years or so with the refurbishment.
The performance space was a fantastic size. It looked ideal for small-scale performances with anything between half a dozen and perhaps even a solitary cast member. It was also a good area in which to try out possible new creative directions.
We were then allowed to look through into the rehearsal area. Preparations were full on for the forthcoming production of Jane Eyre.
I got a sense that the tour was becoming a little Spinal Tap. We were walking endlessly through corridors, passing signs saying Stage Entrance with arrows pointing and twisting around.
It didn’t surprise me that, in front of the main big stage door for the theatre auditorium, there was a large mirror. These actor types certainly do know how to ponce up before putting on a performance.
The highlight of the tour was actually entering and treading the boards of the Mercury Theatre stage. Don’t put your son on the stage, etc.
The acoustics standing on the stage were incredible. You could almost feel the sense of calm around you.
The tour then went a little wonky. A battleaxe old couple took issue with our charming guide. His role was part of engagement and not a high-profile financial position within the theatre.
The old battleaxe couple took him to task about the refurbishment. They demanded to know why he personally didn’t organise the expansion of the theatre to something around 1,000 seats or so rather than create dance studios and fringe theatre spaces.
He very politely tried to bat this aside but the old battleaxe couple wouldn’t let it lie.
Fuck me. Some people.
We entered the construction workshop. Preparations were already underway for the panto scenery. It looked very industrious.
Meanwhile the costume space was miniature. It looked like a lot of hard toil goes into creating the finer details for each costume for what might even just be a walk-on, walk-off part.
And so a very decent half-hour whistle-stop tour around the Mercury Theatre. I’ll try and make sure I actually pay something when I return next time.
