There’s a lot more to theatre than the glitz and glamour of the stage. What you see in the show is the tip of the iceberg, the product of hours of time and all kinds of effort – writing scripts, learning lines, sourcing costumes. You know that – but would you have imagined that animal control would be part of the job?
In September last year, we took on a new storage unit near Redruth in Cornwall as we had discovered, in the summer, that our last one had been turned into a cosy, complex and welcoming home, by and for, a family of rats.
Now, we’re a vegan business and we are all for animals being free – in fact Artistic Director Becca used to have a pet rat Henrietta who would choose to perch and travel on her shoulder, so when Becca got the news about the rats, her first reaction was to be delighted that they had a nice home! But unfortunately, in their search for comfort, they had destroyed all the set and costumes for our show Duffy Beats the Devil, which we are remounting this year. They ate parts of it, chewed tunnels through numerous boxes, and used the rest as a toilet! We think they also lived, cosied up together, in the oven from the set too as when the removal men opened it, one ex navy screamed at what he met!
We’d been there for around ten years, and we’d built up a big collection of kit (less now, thanks to the rats!) so we’ve spent the last few months moving, rearranging, sorting and storing. The videos below show Vicki Cox, our wonderful Technical Stage Manager, proudly showing off our new, accessible and labelled storage.
If you’re fascinated by behind the scenes work, do watch them to see what she has created – we’re so impressed!
