Beverley Graham Interview: Working as a Supernumerary in An Inspector Calls & Production Photographs
Title
Beverley Graham Interview: Working as a Supernumerary in An Inspector Calls & Production Photographs
Date
26 July 2018
Description
Oral history interview with Beverley Graham, a keen amateur dancer, and also a long-time supporter, valued audience member and active participant of the Theatre Royal.
What's the story?
Beverley Graham was born in 1953 in Kirkby-in Ashfield in Nottinghamshire.
From having attended dance schools from an early age, Beverley has always had a passion for theatre and performing. This has developed into a genuine love for the Theatre Royal, which shines through in her interview.
She has attended numerous shows over the years, more so since becoming a Premium Member of the Theatre Royal in 2013. She is also a regular participant in the venue’s dance classes and has even performed on the stage.
In this interview Beverley talks about becoming a supernumerary for the crowd scenes in the National Theatre’s production of An Inspector Calls and the problems of the broken house.
An Inspector Calls by JB Priestley was first performed in September 1945 and examines class hypocrisies and responsibilities.
Stephen Daldry’s influential multi award-winning 1992 National Theatre revival emphasized Priestley’s political message, as well as removing it from its traditional drawing room setting to a post-1945 landscape, the era when Priestley was writing. This included the Birling family home, which literally collapses on stage as the impact of their actions on a young working-class woman finally come to light.
It is this house and its dramatic moment that Beverly describes in her interview and can be seen in the production images from tours of An Inspector Calls that came to the Theatre Royal in 2009 and 2015:
Through being known in 55+, we were asked if anybody was interested in being a “supernumerary actor” for An Inspector Calls and that came on tour round here. Supernumerary, of course, means that you don’t have to say anything: you just have to be there. But I found it a really, really good experience. It was so nice to meet professional actors. It was nice to be actually on the stage that you’d sat in the audience and looked at for so long and they were very nice. You were treated as a member of the cast. They provided with costumes, they do the wigs, and it was an absolutely wonderful experience. It was quite good, because with my son living in Nottingham. I’ve done it twice. One was in the February of one year, and so I stayed at my son’s flat during the week and just went home at weekends after the show had finished. My husband had to fend for himself that week, while I stayed in luxury in my son’s flat. I’d do it again. I have done that particular show twice. There’s not a lot to do, but the actual experience is still really good and I enjoyed it the second time as much as I enjoyed it the first.
Now, talking about things going wrong, the first time we actually did it in the February performances, they decided to show us how the house tilted, I don’t know if you know An Inspector Calls, but an absolutely brilliant set, so they made the house tilt and they couldn’t get it back again. There was just a small piece of something that had broken and it wouldn’t go back up to where it should be and we spent nearly all week with it broken because they couldn’t get the part until the Friday performance. And when we were actually shown it, we were actually sat in the auditorium and they did it, so when we were on stage, we were only at the side of it anyway and at the end of the performance, everybody’s supposed to be on it, but, of course we couldn’t because it was broken. It was quite a good experience that one, The second time we did it, the second session, it worked perfectly, so we actually found out what it should have looked like the first time.
From having attended dance schools from an early age, Beverley has always had a passion for theatre and performing. This has developed into a genuine love for the Theatre Royal, which shines through in her interview.
She has attended numerous shows over the years, more so since becoming a Premium Member of the Theatre Royal in 2013. She is also a regular participant in the venue’s dance classes and has even performed on the stage.
In this interview Beverley talks about becoming a supernumerary for the crowd scenes in the National Theatre’s production of An Inspector Calls and the problems of the broken house.
An Inspector Calls by JB Priestley was first performed in September 1945 and examines class hypocrisies and responsibilities.
Stephen Daldry’s influential multi award-winning 1992 National Theatre revival emphasized Priestley’s political message, as well as removing it from its traditional drawing room setting to a post-1945 landscape, the era when Priestley was writing. This included the Birling family home, which literally collapses on stage as the impact of their actions on a young working-class woman finally come to light.
It is this house and its dramatic moment that Beverly describes in her interview and can be seen in the production images from tours of An Inspector Calls that came to the Theatre Royal in 2009 and 2015:
Through being known in 55+, we were asked if anybody was interested in being a “supernumerary actor” for An Inspector Calls and that came on tour round here. Supernumerary, of course, means that you don’t have to say anything: you just have to be there. But I found it a really, really good experience. It was so nice to meet professional actors. It was nice to be actually on the stage that you’d sat in the audience and looked at for so long and they were very nice. You were treated as a member of the cast. They provided with costumes, they do the wigs, and it was an absolutely wonderful experience. It was quite good, because with my son living in Nottingham. I’ve done it twice. One was in the February of one year, and so I stayed at my son’s flat during the week and just went home at weekends after the show had finished. My husband had to fend for himself that week, while I stayed in luxury in my son’s flat. I’d do it again. I have done that particular show twice. There’s not a lot to do, but the actual experience is still really good and I enjoyed it the second time as much as I enjoyed it the first.
Now, talking about things going wrong, the first time we actually did it in the February performances, they decided to show us how the house tilted, I don’t know if you know An Inspector Calls, but an absolutely brilliant set, so they made the house tilt and they couldn’t get it back again. There was just a small piece of something that had broken and it wouldn’t go back up to where it should be and we spent nearly all week with it broken because they couldn’t get the part until the Friday performance. And when we were actually shown it, we were actually sat in the auditorium and they did it, so when we were on stage, we were only at the side of it anyway and at the end of the performance, everybody’s supposed to be on it, but, of course we couldn’t because it was broken. It was quite a good experience that one, The second time we did it, the second session, it worked perfectly, so we actually found out what it should have looked like the first time.
Type
Oral Interview
Location of item
Theatre Royal & Royal Concert Hall Nottingham
Rights
Theatre Royal & Royal Concert Hall Nottingham
Contributor
Interviewers: Sue Threakall & Julia Holmes
Transcriber: David Chilton
Transcriber: David Chilton
