Lyttelton Theatre: Photo from the side gangway stalls level. The front four rows of seats conform to Peter Hall's theory that these should be the cheaper seats - an equivalent to the 'groundlings' of Shakespeare's time. Having sat in· these seats which are without arms or leg-room I can well understand why they preferred to stand in those distant times. Elsewhere the seats are comfortable and the sightlines good but I find a fault such as this inexcusable. Theatre seats are no novelty and this is our National theatre. The standards by wh ich one judges everything must be high. After all the best architect for the purpose was carefully chosen and the best theatre brains - or at any rate the best known ones and lots of them - were there to advise him. I am equally unhappy about some of the stage lighting positions out-front. There are lots of them. Some are lighting bridges behind coves in the ceiling and others take the form of vertical slots in between the three prosceniums. What is not happy is the way the snouts of some spotlights stick out beyond their coves. It is as if the consultants or the architect did not allow sufficient depth back to front for all contingencies. The Lyttelton unlike the Olivier is pre-eminently a theatre in 14 SUMMER,1977 which one has a right to expect the technical trappings to be concealed. By all means fly out the proscenium header if the production is of the type which needs to display batteries of lighting but for goodness sake let us have one of our National theatres allow us to bathe the stage in Iight as if by natu re from sou rces unseen. The concrete front of the 'circle' is also decorated with spotlights hanging out in the open. I suppose one could take these away at some sacrifice of lighting angle but why couldn't the concrete have been designed to allow concealment of such things? The lighting and other control rooms are excellently positioned at the rear of the stalls. The Lyttelton stage is based on the standard German plan but instead of the two side stages there is only one. Nor is the elevator and wagon as complex as some I have seen; but it should more than serve English theatre where the idea of having any such equipment is mind-boggling. The principal items are a main stagE! elevator 44 feet 8 inches wide by 39 feet deep which can be replaced by the rear wagon of the same size but with a 38 foot diameter revolve in it, or by the side wagon which consists of 30 demountable units. THEATRE DESIGN AND TECHNOLOGY I USITT I