Theatre

The Heron Theatre is easy to find for if one turns off the main road into the village of Beetham in Cumbria it is the first building seen by the roadside with its distinctive flying heron sculpture.  The building dates from the 18th Century when it was a two room Grammar School but today it is a 80 seat theatre putting on music, film and of course theatre.  This rustic space is in contrast to the rather more avant-garde outline of

the Contract Theatre in Manchester.  The stacks and chimneys assist with the buildings natural ventilation.  This has been home to various theatre companies but in 1999 it became a national arts organisation with a 300 seat theatre and a 70 seat studio in the turret.  Part of the University of Manchester it is run by young people (13+) together with the staff who put on a variety of performing arts programmes thorughout the year.  No matter the how big or small the venue neither would be anything without the actors

   and here is the statue of Lawrence Olivier (1907-1989) as Hamlet outside the National Theatre in London which was erected on the centenary of his birth in 2007.  As in life, in death he had drawn a small crowd around him.  I could not resist snapping them as they investigated and discussed what the statue was.  The lone Japanese tourist in the distance is concentrating on the National Theatre building itself where Olivier was its first artistic director in 1963.  The main stage seating 1100 and modelled on the ancient Greek theatre at Epidauris is named after him   He was so prolific on stage and screen that he gets two wikipeadia page entries but here is the one for his his credits.  I don't think he ever stopped working (until the grim reaper intervened) either as an actor or director.

An entry to ABC Wednesday, a journey through the alphabet, this week sojourning at T here