But we’ve built it and we're almost ready for our Rome season to open.
We’ve been sharing pictures of some of the work that’s been going on around the Royal Shakespeare Theatre on social media in the last few weeks.
More than 1 million people visit our Stratford home each year and this was our first opportunity, since opening the transformed theatre in 2010, for some essential maintenance work.
When in Rome…
As we prepared for Rome to take over the Royal Shakespeare Theatre, we took the opportunity to explore a bit more about Rome and how it has influenced us today.
You can take our How Much Do You Know About Ancient Rome quiz and read a feature about Rome and popular culture, from Up Pompeii! to Caesars Palace in Las Vegas, and we’ve also been sharing some well known phrases about Rome:
- ‘Rome wasn’t built in a day’ – it takes time to create great things. We’ve been saying this for hundreds of years – but not in Rome, it comes from medieval French
- ‘When in Rome, do as the Romans do’ – behave as those around you do and respect their beliefs and customs. Or the less snappy original ‘if you should be in Rome, live in the Roman manner; if you should be elsewhere, live as they do there’
- “What have the Romans ever done for us?” From Monty Python’s The Life of Brian. “Apart from the sanitation, the medicine, education, wine, public order, irrigation, roads, the fresh-water system, and public health…” (they also inspired Shakespeare to write some great plays)
- When did you last go on a ‘Roman holiday’? It’s not about seeing the Colosseum and the Trevi Fountain – it means feeling enjoyment as a result of someone else’s suffering
- ‘All Roads Lead to Rome’ – many different methods can lead to the same result - or whatever happens, you’ll get there in the end