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History ensemble member Nick Asbury on moving all but the kitchen sink to the Roundhouse in London...
A new stage
This is the largest build for a show the RSC has ever undertaken.
 Teams of workers have been poring like ants over the Roundhouse, day and night 24 hours a day, to build an approximation of The Courtyard in 10 days: and we've still managed to find a place for the table tennis table. Result! As Bartlett and Wood (a solid, often inspired, seasoned partnership) took on Streatfeild and Asbury (fiery, mercurial at times, but frequently missing the target) in a hotly contested game of doubles, with Tom Piper [the designer] refereeing, so the Roundhouse tech crew looked on dumbfound. Who are these guys? What the....? It made me smile.
The simple fact is that we are The Histories and we are here. And when I say The Histories, I mean the whole thing. All the crew, the wardrobe, wigs, the lighting lads, the automation, the set, the ropes, ladders, bungees, slings and arrows; and the cauldron that is the auditorium. It's fantastic. The sails at the top, put there for the acoustics, put me in mind of the gladiatorial circuses in Rome. The sheer logistical exercise of it is mindboggling. They have done amazing feats in getting this thing in so quick. Two months ago we were given a tour of the auditorium that was being built in an industrial unit in Stratford. 23 articulated lorries took it all down here to London. And then they had to build it. It really is extraordinary. Peter Bailey, the project manager who made all this happen, is a magician.
And I love backstage. Or rather, behind the curtain. We are all lined up in booths of two all along the semicircle that is the back of the set that fits into the wall of the Roundhouse. There is literally a curtain between us and the audience. So that means that all the farts, wheezes, coughs and expectorations that make up the usual soundscape of a male dressing room have to be tempered somewhat. It's actually quite exciting. It's a lovely atmosphere - you get the feeling that something special is going on. Like playing hide and seek when you were a child. There is something breathless to keeping quiet.
And the shows are really beginning to fit in here. As I write, we are about to do a dress of Henry IV Part II. Richard II went really well. I had to go and do the mobile phone announcement thingy that we do these days. So I guess I was the first person to speak on this stage. I'm weirdly quite proud of that for some reason. But it was quite interesting to see the rather blank looks that I was greeted with. They are just not used to not having that sort of thing here in London. Still, we'll train them. When you compare it to the feeling we shared with the last audience two weeks ago in the Glorious Moment - it's certainly feels more distant. But that's only to be expected. We will have our time here too.
As we will with the table tennis now that we've found a little space for it. After two weeks off (although a week of gastric flu didn't help) I'm well up for it. Oh, and for putting on 8 shows.
 Respond to Nick's blog
Watch extracts from the Histories
 View scenes from Henry V and behind the scenes in rehearsals.
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Latest blog posts
- Listen. Time passes. Listen.
- I feel alive
- Things happen to you
- Sleeping on ladders
- Battle of Barnet
- Buckets of blood
- Hamming
- Three and a half weeks
- Letting go
- Unforgettable
- Lighting grids
- A new stage
- Gloriously
- The men in black
- Really listening
- Making history
- Happy birthday!
- Bleeeuurghhh!
- Dead weight
- Card sharks
- Tomorrow I scalded myself with tea
- You stink
- Turning to slush
- The threshold point
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- Corpsing
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About blogger Nick
Likes: Cricket and music. Fields and dark pubs with no music
Dislikes: Lager, crowded streets and light bars with music |
