Nick Thompson & Clare Ferraby Interview: First Impressions of the Theatre Royal
Title
Nick Thompson & Clare Ferraby Interview: First Impressions of the Theatre Royal
Date
18 May 2018
Description
Oral history interview with Nick Thompson and Clare Ferraby, architect and designer of the refurbished Theatre Royal in 1977.
What's the story?
Clare Ferraby started as a freelance designer in London in 1963 when she was 25, and married Nicholas Thompson, a young architect, who went on to become a leading light of the theatre architects’ practice RHWL three years later.
RHWL were commissioned to oversee the rebuilding of the Theatre Royal in the 1970s, following the success of projects at Sheffield Crucible and Warwick Arts Centre.
In a recent interview for The Stage Clare spoke of her craft:
“I’ve always looked at the history of the theatres I’ve worked on. It is important for me to have a feeling for the soul of the building before I develop new ideas. Every theatre has its own distinctive soul. With the older buildings, I look at the detail to understand the original designer’s intention.
The great Victorian theatre architects Matcham, Sprague and Phipps wanted to get everything right and I understand that. You want everything to fall into place and fit together, like a painting.”
As part of the Theatre Royal’s heritage work Nick Thompson & Clare Ferraby have kindly loaned us items from their private collection revealing their work on the Theatre Royal, which can be found elsewhere on this site.
In this interview Nick and Clare talk about working on the Theatre Royal during a “difficult” economic period and due to its bad condition having to work on a “horrible, but magical” theatre. Nick states … “under a sea of crud there was something quite good”.
Nick: Certainly we hadn’t had any work involvement in this theatre. We’d had no involvement in any existing theatres. So we came and went up to Glasgow and saw the Theatre Royal in Glasgow, which had just been done by Harrap Associates, very beautifully, of an old theatre and restoring it. So that was the first theatre, I think in Britain which was restored in this very difficult period. We’re talking of a period after the Three-Day Week. Everything was hard, tough, difficult. And we came here: it was quite difficult to evaluate it really because clearly it was a theatre that was sort of working, but you just sensed after working with a repertory company in The Crucible and so on, this is archaic. This is shambolic. What is going on? Why is this so horrible? Yet the auditorium was magical. Under the sea of crud, there was something that was quite good, very good. Clare: Something to grab hold of, I think. Nick: Yes.
RHWL were commissioned to oversee the rebuilding of the Theatre Royal in the 1970s, following the success of projects at Sheffield Crucible and Warwick Arts Centre.
In a recent interview for The Stage Clare spoke of her craft:
“I’ve always looked at the history of the theatres I’ve worked on. It is important for me to have a feeling for the soul of the building before I develop new ideas. Every theatre has its own distinctive soul. With the older buildings, I look at the detail to understand the original designer’s intention.
The great Victorian theatre architects Matcham, Sprague and Phipps wanted to get everything right and I understand that. You want everything to fall into place and fit together, like a painting.”
As part of the Theatre Royal’s heritage work Nick Thompson & Clare Ferraby have kindly loaned us items from their private collection revealing their work on the Theatre Royal, which can be found elsewhere on this site.
In this interview Nick and Clare talk about working on the Theatre Royal during a “difficult” economic period and due to its bad condition having to work on a “horrible, but magical” theatre. Nick states … “under a sea of crud there was something quite good”.
Nick: Certainly we hadn’t had any work involvement in this theatre. We’d had no involvement in any existing theatres. So we came and went up to Glasgow and saw the Theatre Royal in Glasgow, which had just been done by Harrap Associates, very beautifully, of an old theatre and restoring it. So that was the first theatre, I think in Britain which was restored in this very difficult period. We’re talking of a period after the Three-Day Week. Everything was hard, tough, difficult. And we came here: it was quite difficult to evaluate it really because clearly it was a theatre that was sort of working, but you just sensed after working with a repertory company in The Crucible and so on, this is archaic. This is shambolic. What is going on? Why is this so horrible? Yet the auditorium was magical. Under the sea of crud, there was something that was quite good, very good. Clare: Something to grab hold of, I think. Nick: Yes.
Type
Oral interview
Location of item
Theatre Royal & Royal Concert Hall Nottingham
Rights
Theatre Royal & Royal Concert Hall Nottingham
Contributor
Interviewers: Stephen Bray & Liz Mackenzie
Transcriber: David Chilton
Transcriber: David Chilton
