In January 1974, our Trustee Alan Wrixon, took part in the last pantomime at Swindon’s Mechanics’ Institute’s Playhouse Theatre. In December 2023, he wrote his first-hand account of his experiences that very last Pantomime:
It is worth looking back at the feelings of the time. A miners’ strike had started the previous year and that year had ended with the then Prime Minister announcing that a 3 day week and further restrictions would be in place from the start of 1974.
So, we were cold and miserable and fearful as at the start of 1974 inflation was over 18% and rising and we were also being asked to save fuel and work less hours with the consequent income loss.
Looking at historic notes, I see that the records show that the panto was in January as usual but my memory is that it was later, perhaps delayed until after the restrictions lifted a few weeks later. A pantomime in the early spring is not a normal pantomime.
So, 30 minutes before curtain up I arrive at the door opposite the Cricketers on a cold wet evening, travelling with 3 dancers in accordance with the car sharing guidance. I am not distracted by the open bar ahead of me and run up the concrete stairs to the upper landing and then up the 4 or 5 steps to go through the stage door proper.
This takes me into the wide corridor from the scenery door and on to the stage where I meet our rather autocratic stage manager and our lighting operative. The lighting operative says that he has just come back from touring the theatre lighting the gas mantles (emergency lighting).
I climb the wide stairs on to the wide balcony which runs along the full length of the stage left wing. (There is a similar one on stage right). I go into the largest of the three dressing rooms which lead off from this balcony and set out and start putting on the rather horrid grease paint still in use at that time. (For the purists Leichner Lit k and 5 and 9).
I put on my costume and move on to the balcony with some colleagues. We stand, looking over the stage chatting and looking over as the stage is prepared. These balconies were somewhat unusual but gave cast the opportunity to look at what is happening without getting in the stage crew’s way. Our conversation is joined by the lighting operative, now wearing wellington boots, in case the floor got wet, as he moved to his mechanical lighting board on this balcony up against the proscenium arch.
As curtain up approached we gather on the stage, the cast from each side of the stage being joined by some younger cast which had come down the steep, narrow steps at the rear of the stage from one of the rooms in the library attic. A member of the front of house team came in and gave clearance to the stage manager.
He checked that the lighting man was in position, sent the flymen up their ladder and the 3 piece band to the front of stage. (There is no actual pit). The stage went dark as the working lights went out.
We were now in the hands of the stage manager’s only communication method, a torchlight in the eyes.
A cautious movement of the house tabs enabled a light to reach the eyes of the musical director and hence the band started. A further light into the eyes of the flyman signalled the lift of the house tabs and so we were off as it were on autopilot as there was no way of easy communication from then on.
The first thing that struck me was the size of the audience – minimal -Babes in the Wood in Feb/March? However off we went with me and 5 others appearing as Robbin Hood’s merry men in between various songs and comedy routines.
Midway through one song I was aware of being hit by something. Discussing this afterwards it seems that someone gave the boy scouts in the front row some boiled sweets which they chose to use as projectiles. I could not see them coming over the footlights. Midway through the first half there was something of a panic.
As the scene was revealed to show the chorus of unruly children (full chorus) about to taught by the principal comedian in full headmaster’s uniform. The only problem was he put the wrong costume on, realised his mistake and shouted to us from the balcony to carry on. Fortunately it was relatively easy to misbehave until he was ready.
So on to the interval. The house tabs came in followed by a loud sound, that of the safety curtain coming in.
After the interval break, I was fascinated looking from the balcony at a very elderly man fiddling with a mechanism on the proscenium arch. It subsequently turned out to be the retired stage manager who had the knack of resetting a rather cantankerous safety curtain release mechanism. The then loud sound of the ratchet on the safety curtain winding gear as the flyman wound it out signalled the imminent start of act 2.
So off with a rather inauspicious start to the act. Our leading man, suffering with a tummy bug, had withdrawn to the toilet and our rather power hungry stage manager had said that it was he that was in charge so despite our protests that the leading man was missing he just signalled the curtain out, leaving we merry men to sing Robin Hood’s big number as he stood fuming on the balcony whilst adjusting his dress.
And so on to the end of the show in the same way with everything finishing with the same person resetting the release mechanism of the safety curtain. A short wash in the rather inadequate facilities preceeded a trip to the bar and a single pint before the then compulsory 10.30 bar closure and re entry into the grey world of that time, ready to do it all again the next day.
Memories of the Mechanics’
Alan has shared some of his other memories of his experiences at Swindon’s Mechanics Institute, which you can read here:
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