Concordia 2025

Concordia Winter 2024

31

Emcee and the Gorilla Cabaret (1984)

was first involved in The Thwarting of Baron Bollingrew (1983). John Coleman probably cajoled me into it as I was taking Design and Technology O Level, which I loved. Julian Slator designed some swinging scaffolding gates, which were castle walls, and we had a series of foam cut-outs that could be removed and reinserted to depict the crumbling walls. During the performances I was in the gods with Dan Cornelius (1981–1986), flying the knights’ table down to the stage using steel cables via a pulley system; it was pretty heavy and difficult to control!’ David Adams continues: ‘For Coriolanus (1999) an extremely ambitious and intricate scaffold was created, with a huge staircase from the very back of the choir stalls running to beyond the front of the stage and round an orchestra pit. It was all covered by scaffolding boards, painted black and tied down with round eyes and string; it is a mind numbing and finger-burning task to tie down hundreds of boards for the cast to perform on. Backstage volunteers became a little thin on the ground during this phase, even with the incentive of a lunch queue pass! During one performance Julian Skan (1975–1980), in the title role, slipped backwards off the staircase during a swordfight; he was pushed back on stage by whoever was playing the timpani!’

rehearsals on the set rather than in a rehearsal room. There were a number of late nights during which we had to hang the drapes, focus the lights, program the lighting board for every lighting cue during the whole show (in the early years this was all recorded on paper but later on it became computerised), set up projectors and cue in sound effects. This took time, skill and a lot of patience on behalf of the pupils and staff involved.’ Ben Trisk remembers the production of South Pacific (1994) in his final year at school. ‘I stayed late with Jon Wilmot (1990–1995) and others helping Messrs Slator and Coleman with positioning or focusing the lights correctly for the different scenes. I was driving myself to school in those days, and I remember coming back home late and my mother being furious with me because she had no idea where I was. In the days before mobile phones and email, I had not been thoughtful enough to use the payphone at school to let her know my plans.’ Simon Hampel (1981–1986) recalls that ‘Pulling virtual all-nighters to get the job done, and sleeping in the SCR, felt very grown-up, daring and way beyond my station in life’. Some productions seem to have stood out either for their ambitious staging or for the unintended near misses, as David Adams (1981–1986) explains. ‘I

‘For South Pacific (1994) we built a raked “beach” from boards that were pivoted and could be raised horizontally to form a flat stage or raised vertically to reveal a different backdrop’, says Ben Trisk. ‘During one of the dress rehearsals I seem to remember Jeremy Kutner (1990–1995) having to carry someone across the stage. He stood on the top edge of a board which promptly raised like a seesaw. He jumped off quickly and the board came crashing down. Luckily no-one was hurt but we then had to fit locking bolts underneath to prevent that from happening again.’ The most memorable show for David Adams and Simon Hampel’s contemporaries is Cabaret (1984), when the 1930s design of the Great Hall came into its own. As with so many