I had had enough, after all those years, and all those shows. I had enjoyed the change to just installation work. I had got what I wanted, to be home in the evenings, and off at the week ends, but it was no good. I missed the hours and the stress, the thrills, and the risks. I almost had a seat at the table, but it was no good. I missed the camaraderie of the people I had worked with for so many years. One can sit on the side lines of a battle, and then drink with the warriors, and try and pretend its the same, but it isn’t. You are either in theatre or you are not. I told Julian that I was going. I think he knew, he said that I could apply for his job, it would be a choice then between me and David Draude. He told me that of course I would have to go back to 40+ hours a week again. He knew I did not want that. I might have wanted the Job but not that much. He got Steve McAndrew to apply, but I think it was just to make up numbers so that it looked as if they had made a choice.
I wrote to Julian saying that I would like my Contract to terminate on the 9th of the 9th 2013. It would be 36 years to the day that I had started at the Victoria Palace. He wrote me a very nice letter in reply. I still have it and still take it out and read it now and then.
They asked my what sort of party I would like? I thought of Bill Hoff, and I thought of all the other Theatre Bar leaving Parties. I could have it at the palladium, or TRDL or any where I wished. I thought of all those Theatre Bar leaving parties. No, no, a room crowded with people some wanting to be there, some embarrassed for another taking the long walk. Some just there for the beer, some there to be seen, some there because they wanted to, some there because they had to.
No it wasn’t me, to be the centre of attention, after all those years of looking after the people that, like, want, and crave, to be the centre of attention. No, I knew what I wanted, I wanted a picture of all the people I had worked with all those years. On a stage, but with out me. I wanted it like the Annie photograph, with out me, but signed by everyone around the white boarder.
I wanted to just go to the pub, just to the pub, with my friends just one last time.
I wondered what Rules restaurant in Covent Garden was like. David had said that when working at the Adelphi he had often eaten there. I asked Julian if we could go, he agreed. He asked if I would like to invite anyone else. I thought, and said no. It should be just him and me, the end of an era, just the two of us on that one. The other reason would be how could I choose just a few out of so many.
They did hold a party for me in an Indian restaurant and it was a nice touch. I tried to hide on several occasions to get that photograph with out me being in it but I failed. All the best people but a very few are in it. It hangs by the side of my desk in the office at home. I got my night in the pub, I remember Big Lad picking me up. I remember picking him up, and I remember falling over with him taking most of the group with us, just a perfect end.
And so this is the End. I hope you enjoyed my “John’s Old Theatrical Tales” It was if you have got this far, a story, or perhaps a journey I took over nearly 37 years in Theatre. It may not quite have started that way. I had perhaps intended it to be just a set of funny stories. In the end it seemed that the funny stories needed explanation, something to bind them together, and this is the result.
Writing a book about oneself is a very pompous thing to do. It assumes a) that one has done something worth writing about, and b) that someone else would be prepared to read it. I am not certain of either of these justify this book. But it does cover a very unique time in English professional Theatre in the West End of London. Beginning at the end of the 70’s with the demise of Variety theatre, The beginning of the age of the mega musical, the end of Manual lighting desks, the beginnings of memory control, and the arrival of moving lights. Added to that, now of course also is automated scenery a thing I never thoought to see in my life time.
Thank you for reading it, and I leave you with just two last thoughts.
Being a theatre technician in any department is about the arrival at the destination. No one cares about the Journey. If you want the honour of working in theatre, that’s what you need to remember. It’s unlikely you will get to choose the destination. You may not even get to choose the route. But like any of the mighty that have fallen, if you don’t get to the destination you won’t be invited on the trip again. The show goes up at the advertised time, and if it’s your fault it doesn’t, you better have a bloody good reason for it.
If you want to be a Technician in theatre, give it your best shot, someone will help you, be kind to them, they probably have had a very busy day, and a lot of things to worry about, apart from just you. If you make a mistake admit it. Say in your most serious voice ” I am sorry I fucked up” Give up your time, don’t count the free hours your giving them. They will notice, they might not say so, but if you are kind they will remember, and you never know, you just might get lucky. If you do, and you tell an old couple on a train going home late at night and they smile and wish you luck, you never know one of them just might be me.
Good Luck.
John Stenton.
Instow, North Devon.