Photo: Sarah Rushton-Read
d e h S e h T
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Sarah Rushton-Read reports on the National Theatre’s new hot-house of talent, ideas and stripped-back theatre . . .
north and you can’t help but notice the huge red shed that has appeared in front of the National Theatre. This striking structure has challenged even the most erudite of journalistic scribes: to date it has been portrayed as a ‘mini Battersea power station’, an ‘upside down henhouse’ and, perhaps most flippantly, as a ‘cheery looking red structure’. Designed and built as a temporary structure to compensate for the temporary closure and refurbishment of the National’s Cottesloe Theatre, The Shed is the result of a collaborative union between theatre consultants Charcoalblue and architects Haworth Tompkins. Charcoalblue is already recognised for its work on similar projects, having been involved in the design of the Royal Shakespeare Theatre’s temporary Courtyard Theatre in Stratford-upon-Avon and a short-term home for St Ann’s Warehouse in New York, amongst others. In addition, Charcoalblue and Haworth Tompkins were already working together on ‘NT Future’ - the £70m redevelopment of the National Theatre’s permanent building, as well as on both the refurbishment of the Grade II* listed Chichester Festival Theatre, and the rebuilding of Liverpool’s Everyman Theatre which is due to re-open in 2014. So what is the NT Shed? With a ‘fringe theatre’ characteristic, which brings a completely new offering to the National Theatre’s suite of performing spaces, The Shed also incorporates the outwardly utilitarian architecture of
The National’s permanent structure. Its red-planked simplicity belies an extremely intelligent approach to minimalistic design and planning. Haworth Tompkins and Charcoalblue designed the new 250-seat auditorium in close collaboration, and worked together to ensure that this big red box is as recyclable and economically minimalistic as its outward appearance implies. The Shed is without windows, signage or visible entrance doors, while inside it features a stripped-back geometry that has already enabled the creative imagining of a wide variety of stories and theatrical styles. The auditorium itself is a rough and ready space where the shackles of high-tech expectation have been thrown off and where raw theatre can take place. That, of course, is not to say that it is of lesser quality - just less adorned, perhaps. “We talked about an empty space for total flexibility,” explains Paddy Dillon, associate director at Haworth Tompkins. “Then Charcoalblue came up with a model of a perfect little octagonal theatre with a gallery, and everyone fell in love with it.” In terms of the tools of theatrical and technical realisation, the National Theatre’s technical team has redeployed all of the technology from the Cottesloe, including the seating and staging. “The aim behind The Shed new build was to create a renewable, reusable and recyclable temporary space for new forms of theatre,” explains Jon Stevens, creative partner at Charcoalblue. “We’ve made use of natural ventilation and the National’s own stock of theatre technical equipment, and even the audience seating is reclaimed from the Cottesloe Theatre refurbishment.”
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Look towards London’s South Bank from the
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Photo: Sarah Rushton-Read
venueinstallation Matt Drury, now head of lighting for the National Theatre, but until recently head of lighting at The Royal Court, came on board quite late in the build process and brought a fresh approach to solving The Shed’s technical and logistical lighting challenges as he explains: “We were given very clear parameters to work with. It was imagined that most shows would do a Monday get in and open two days later on the Wednesday. The result is a much shorter production period than the National Theatre is used to.”
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The Shed was not intended to run in repertory: its remit is to deliver a mix of home- and co-produced smaller budget productions, peppered with a liberal smattering of productions from visiting national and international performance companies. Plus, with only 250 relatively low-priced seats on offer, the Shed cannot sustain a large staff. Because of this, and the required quick turnaround between shows, Drury and his colleagues ultimately elected to go with a ‘fixed’ lighting rig. Drury approached the design in consultation with lighting control supervisor for the National Dan Murfin, lighting resources manager Mike Atkinson and the lighting supervisors from the Cottesloe Theatre. He later discussed the design with the National Theatre’s lighting associate, Paule Constable. “From the beginning we felt that although the intention was to operate on the basis of straight production runs, once The Shed was up and running it was likely a number of events and one-off productions would get woven into the fabric of the programme. To that end, we knew we were going to have to offer a fairly flexible ‘fixed’ rig. Another design directive of The Shed was not to be technologically flashy, we did
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elect to rig a number of moving lights - TW1and VL1000TSs, four of each - to offer flexibility in terms of position, colour and pattern. The fixed rig then comprises a PAR can scroller wash, a four point cover for 12 areas, four 2kW Fresnels in each corner for key-light and some Source Four Juniors on the balcony fronts for when the stage is in the thrust.”
deputy technical manager for The Shed. “This has been particularly rewarding for our own home-produced shows. To be honest, visiting companies are used to arriving somewhere and working with what they are given. Not only that, this way of working has offered an opportunity to for the lighting supervisor, Paul Knott, to light a number of shows himself.”
Of course, The Shed is as much an experiment as anything else and, as the parameters for operation change, so does the approach, as Drury discusses: “Ultimately, we are trying to be as reactive as we can be to the needs of the creative process, but to do this within the limits that restrict us - staff and time - can be challenging.”
As the schedule evolves, some shows are beginning to run in a more traditional rep. The Shed’s technical team are looking to adopt a more flexible approach: “We are looking at moving the rig if required but not completely it doesn’t come down and go back up again between shows - rather shifting kit a little bit and changing its purpose. It’s an experiment and we have done our best to accommodate all the different demands, while ensuring we have a rig that can achieve what is being asked of it.”
“Most incoming creatives have responded very positively,” continues Rob Clarke,
Tobias Menzies in The Hush.
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Straight forward thinking
“There is something very welcoming about the space,” says technical manager of the Cottesloe Theatre and now The Shed, Chris McDougall. “It’s impressive without being intimidating and the stripped-back approach gives a different connection to the story. The height of the auditorium is also enough to ensure that the lighting and sound equipment does not feel too present or oppressive - we love it.”
However, for her design for Table, Constable elected to take as much of the fixed rig down as she could! “I felt very strongly that the rig was too big for the delicacy of the space,” she explains. “In an ideal world I felt the experiment should have assumed a starting point of nothing at all.” So the building is already working hard and on a number of levels. It is sharp and intimate, yet feels fresh, optimistic and new. And perhaps most importantly it asks questions of its inhabitants and users all of the time. The modest auditorium ensures audiences are not only close to the action on stage but are also by default close to each other. This ensures that action on stage is always viewed at intimate quarters, but they also see through and beyond it to other members of the audience and their reactions, thus dramatically amplifying the collective experience. Rob Clarke, technical manager for The Shed, says: “For me, it’s almost like going back fifteen years. The quality of the work is fantastic, but it’s stripped-back. It’s all about the text and the relationship between the actors and the audience.”
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The first lighting designer into the space was NT lighting associate and award-winning designer Paule Constable, who lit Table. “I loved being in a smaller space at the NT, I loved the simplicity of it,” says Constable. “It’s a great team and a great space. I also love the way the foyer design relates to main foyer spaces of the National itself; it has changed the way people behave and that’s exciting. There was a joy to opening a new space at The National and having those first conversations. Discovering the space’s strengths and weaknesses for the first time and watching how people learned how to deal with it.”
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Photo: Richard Hubert Smith
Developed and produced in five weeks The Hush asked audiences to listen in a way they never have before: performers interacted with live Foley artists and immersive sound design to recreate the past, imagine the future and give voice to The Shed itself. The Financial Times described it as ‘A fascinating piece of aural theatre, meditating on sound and memory. The sound is so precisely orchestrated that you feel the audience flinch’. The Shed’s sound system was designed by sound designer Rich Walsh and The Shed’s sound supervisor Ben Vernon. As with lighting, no new equipment has been installed in the Shed other than cabling: “The sound equipment we are using all came out of the Cottesloe,” explains Mike Winship, associate sound designer for The Hush and assistant sound supervisor for The Shed. “Overhead are eight d&b E12-Ds, which can be refocused as required, such as when we move from the thrust configuration to the round. However, adding more speakers to the Truss is problematic as the Truss is already at its weight limit! We can - and do add floor speakers or show specific prac’s on a show-by-show basis.” For a space of its size the Shed system does offer excellent surround coverage. “The touring companies we have received have all been extremely enthusiastic about the system,” adds deputy technical manager Rob Clarke. In addition to the eight E12-Ds on the truss the rig comprises: eight d&b E8s with two EM i-12 and two EM i-8 Subs (under the stairs). For surround 16 JBL Control 1 Pros are permanently rigged on walls. The venue uses a Yamaha 01V96 mixing desk with 12
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mic inputs for playback, while outboard comprises a dual-redundant 24-channel QLab playback system, one Lexicon PCM81 effects processor and a CD player. The system is managed by a Yamaha DME64. “We’re squeezing the most we can out of the system and every input and output is being used,” adds Winship. “The sound designer for Table - the first show into the Shed - was the original system designer, Rich Walsh. He obviously understood what the system was capable of delivering and that was a great start to the season. Table featured quite a lot of live singing and a number of atmospheric sound effects, reverbs etc, and was, in the end, quite a busy show.” This was followed by Bullet Catch, which had relatively simple requirements. Next was Mission Drift, which was effectively a musical with a live band and a number of microphones. Both used the house system without any issues. Surprisingly, even the sound-focused The Hush, did not demand an elaborate enhancement to the rig, as associate sound designer for the show Winship explains: “We used the house system and mostly played the show as if it was coming from an invisible
Since then Mike Walker, sound designer for the current show - Home, has augmented the system: “He is using a small Opus vocal system alongside the existing speakers,” explains Winship. “It has worked excellently, amplifying human beatboxing while subtly reinforcing performers over the top of it and reaching maximum coverage with the minimum of equipment.” Nonetheless, the room in its raw state has pretty good acoustics, although it’s not hugely reverberant. There is no additional treatment for acoustics and if it’s very noisy outside it can penetrate the building. “We’ve done the best we can with the resources available and we’re pretty happy with the results, concludes Winship. “Obviously, when we were specifying the system we couldn’t know what every show would require in terms of sound, so all we could do was design something that would be flexible enough to accommodate every eventuality.” The team has tweaked the system as time has gone on; each show brings new challenges. “We’re happy to adapt for every new show if we can. Of course, everything we have introduced for each new show tends to stay in and further augment the system, so it is improving all the time!” However, one is not to be entirely seduced by the visually low-spec feel. The overall budget for the venue was a cool £1.2 million - and all of the design decisions had a practical purpose, as Stevens discusses: “The chimneys on each of the four corners draw cool air up from grilles underneath audience seats out through the top of the building. This natural ventilation ensures that fresh air is continually circulated and maintains a comfortable room temperature virtually silently.”
Sarah Niles and Paul Hilton in Table, with lighting design by Paule Constable.
Photo: Richard Hubert Smith
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More recently, the National has produced its second ‘homegrown’ production, The Hush. Described as an ‘experimental journey into sound’, it was created by composer and New Radiophonic Workshop creative director Matthew Herbert with associate director and boss of The Shed, Ben Power.
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cinema screen. Matthew wanted to ensure that the sound would be right in the face of every member of the audience in stereo and that is what we achieved.”
Rosalie Craig and Michael Shaeffer in Table.
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This self-sufficiency allows The Shed to function almost independently from the National Theatre’s main building. And although, for a variety of economic and practical reasons, it does not entirely fulfil the team’s initial ambition to create a wholly ‘unplugged’ space, it’s a great deal further on than it might have been. The stripped-back approach also extends to a relaxed lobby, which has been formed under what was once the NT building’s outdoor overhang. The artful positioning of Moroccan rugs and an apparently random mish-mash of second-hand and home-made furniture is all masterfully pulled together with a suitably commanding super-sized bar. The area has a similar vibe to the bar at the Young Vic, with crowds who are not necessarily waiting to see a show, but simply hanging out and having a drink. “It’s always instructive how creative and liberating a temporary project can be,” says Nick Starr, executive director at the National Theatre. “Charcoalblue and Haworth Tompkins are ideal collaborators. Their impulse for innovation and experimentation has resulted in a building that is ridiculously good.” Ben Power sums it all up: “This space is about new forms of theatre - new kinds of performance, new voices coming here for the first time and engaging with the National and our audiences. It’s also about the people who go to galleries, gigs and other kinds of live art performance in London - but who don’t come here engaging with the National.”
Photo: Sarah Rushton-Read
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> //theshed.nationaltheatre.org.uk > www.charcoalblue.com > www.haworthtompkins.com
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