John west DON'T DAZZLE THE AUDIENCE
A Personal Opinion by John West
There is only one thing that should be white in a theatre interior and that is the cinema screen…
In the days of gas light paints were always muted and having a near-white auditorium might have been acceptable. Now that there is so much stage lighting in the auditorium, painting it in any highly reflective colour is a bad idea. When the Alexandra Theatre, Birmingham was “modernised” by Derek Salberg the new sounding board that concealed the art deco proscenium was painted white; it proved impossible to obtain a blackout and eventually had to be painted black. Timothy West has commented adversely about the white paint in the Gala Theatre, Durham but there are many more, the Richmond Theatre in Surry has had its rich Matcham tones of golden-brown brown replaced with near-white, His Majesties Theatre, Aberdeen has also been painted a pale colour. Interior decorators seem to believe that it is “good taste” but it is woefully impractical and all-too-often those who know about these things are never consulted, until it is too late. Even if “historical evidence” shows that it was white there is no reason to copy it. It will show every mark and there will not be the budgets to re-paint theatre interiors so often in the future, so a practical colour is more desirable. Who would have white seats in a theatre?
No cinema management would be daft enough to paint the auditorium white, due to the amount of reflection. Redditch Palace Theatre was repainted in a daffodil yellow colour, which may have been the base coat for a stone effect but is extremely unlikely to be authentic, as most Bertie Crewe theatres of the period were painted in a warm stone colour and such a “nursery book” colour scheme was most improbable. The Theatres Trust were unpleasantly surprised when they saw colour photographs of what had been done and approved by English Heritage, which should have known better. The Alhambra Bradford interior is a much more successful restoration of a building of the same period. Sadly, theatre people are often side-lined by “do-gooders” who believe that they know better and it is not until it is too late that the ghastliness of some architect’s pet scheme is revealed.
Piet Mondrian advocated painting all surfaces white. We still see the influence today. Unfortunately, in a historic theatre it makes the plasterwork look like a wedding cake and reflects too much of the stray light from the front of house lamps. An auditorium should be rich and inviting when the house lights are up and discreetly not call attention to itself when they are down. The opposite trend is equally unfortunate, which is to use cheap building materials and paint them black so that they would “disappear” creating a “unity of space” the result usually looks shoddy and resembles a TV studio.
Modernist hate golden auditoria but a mid-tone like Frank Matcham’s “tobacco brown” of the long lost and mourned Metropolitan, Edgware Road adorned with rich details that faded with the house lights was a better choice. The London Palladium is also painted in brown and gold and these colours work it is considered to be one of his finest theatres in which to play. Mecca Bingo’s interior decorators often produced more theatrical colour schemes for their theatre interiors, than those decorated by the “experts”. Deep rich colours with details picked-out in gold work very well. Pale pastel nursery colours may be considered to be “good taste” by some (but not by me). Much admired painted schemes in historical interiors are often very different from the way they originally looked. In many a painted interior when a later fitting is removed, unfaded areas of paint colours reveal how rich the original colours were. The Tyne Opera House in Newcastle had a rich ornate wall-paper revealed when later layers were removed. It takes more skill to make a rich colour scheme work than a pale or drab one. Why do so many schemes get designed by some joyless character who believes that the less pleasant the colour scheme the more “artistic” it must be? A regrettable trend in the 1970s was to paint auditoria purple and though it may be argued that this is a mid-tone; physiologically it is the colour of death and depression. Restricting the audience-appeal to Goths and manic depressives is unlikely to make good business sense…
The side and back walls of an auditorium are just as important as the circle and box fronts when it comes to the décor. Having the side walls in a paler colour makes them “come forward” visually. The effect of the lavish interior of Frank Matcham’s Tower Ballroom at Blackpool is spoilt by the side walls behind the pillars being painted white. Almost certainly the walls would have been wall-papered and would have been darker and receded. Wakefield Opera House, when first opened was reported to have “leather effect” wallpaper, which sounds like Matcham’s brown paint on anaglypta paper.
A theatre is a special place, where magic happens. It deserves good designs to ensure that it has exactly the right ambience to put the audience into a receptive mood. It needs the sensitive touch of someone who respects the history of theatre not some “innovator” who wants to start again from scratch (and as a result, so often, ends-up making the usual predictable, mistakes.) This is why some of the most expensive new theatres seem soulless and many venerable but modest theatres are greatly favoured by actors and audiences alike.
John West
11 January 2010
published by “The Stage and Television Today” on 24 March 2010
(Locations of suitable illustrations are below.)
http://www.theatrestrust.org.uk/store/ttdb/ttt0041/lowres/009972_regular.jpg?1249904187
http://www.panoramio.com/photos/original/16197058.jpg
http://www.pressandjournal.co.uk/thumbnail.aspx?refId=2013205&refRef=img&style=full
http://www.tanphotos.co.uk/crusaid5.jpg
