The Buzz Goodbody Room
Upstairs at The Other Place sits a room devoted to the woman responsible for establishing the venue.
Like Joan Littlewood, the firebrand director whose life was celebrated at the Swan Theatre in Miss Littlewood this year, Buzz Goodbody wanted to promote a very different style of theatre to that seen elsewhere at the RSC. With The Other Place, named after a reference to Hell in Hamlet, she created a home for experimental theatre that still hosts our annual Mischief Festivals, as well as music and poetry nights throughout the year.
Her real name was Mary, but she got the nickname Buzz because of how she was always buzzing around when she was a child. She grew up to be a feminist and member of the Communist Party with a desire to produce theatre accessible to a wide audience. Goodbody was the first ever female director to work for the RSC but died aged just 28, shortly after the opening of her production of Hamlet starring Ben Kingsley. Because the original The Other Place was a corrugated iron building, she is sometimes referred to as ‘the tin hut revolutionary’, and rumour has it that when the tin hut closed in 1989 it was sent over to Ireland to be used as a pig store!
The Buzz Goodbody Room is used as a rehearsal space for many RSC shows, and can also be hired out for meetings and events for up to 16 people.
This image shows the back wall of the room, which is covered in pictures and clippings about Goodbody.
Read more about Buzz Goodbody