Theatre Design & Technology - Winter 2025 - 36

Broadway musical, Zorba, in 1968. (He
had previously worked in the U.S. on
shows designed by lighting pioneers Jean
Rosenthal and Tharon Musser.)
As co-founder of Theatre Projects in
1957, initially a lighting and equipment
rental business that transformed into
Theatre Projects Consultants, he practically
invented the profession of theatre
consultant. His first major project was
the Birmingham Repertory Company,
and his company has gone on to work
on more than 1,800 projects in 80 countries.
Pilbrow was also one of the people
behind the creation of the major British
theatre design and technology organizations:
the Association of British Theatre
Technicians (ABTT) and the Society of
British Theatre Designers (SBTD). On
top of this, he was an important theatre
producer, working with Harold Prince on
the London premieres of Prince's iconic
musical productions, as well as a producer
of film and television. And Pilbrow's
book on stage lighting has been a standard
textbook for decades.
Pilbrow worked with the National
Theatre from its inception. Alongside
stage designer Sean Kenny and sound
designer David Collison, he oversaw
the renovation of the venerable Old Vic
Theatre that served as the initial home
of the newly founded National Theatre
in 1962. Sir Laurence Olivier, the NT's
founding artistic director, tapped him to
be the company's first lighting designer.
Pilbrow also served on the building committee
for the creation of the new building
on the South Bank that would ultimately
house the company. He was there from
the start; he knew everyone who created
and ran the company; and he was there
in the thick of things to the finish. While
the book, through Pilbrow's words and
the words of many others, is at times critical
of the process and the results, it's also
generous in giving credit to the strengths
and successes of the NT as well.
The book, which is divided into seven
sections, begins with a history of British
theatre and the quest for a national theatre.
Part two primarily documents the
process of arriving at a plan and the hiring
of an architect. Part three covers the
construction of the theatre (with significant
excerpts from Sir Peter Hall's published
diaries). Part four takes us through
the initial years after the opening of the
new theatre with interviews with the
Richard Pilbrow and Henry Tharpe at the 2014 USITT Conference & Stage Expo in Fort Worth,
Texas. | USITT/ Richard Finkelstein.
subsequent artistic directors, documentation
of significant productions under their
leadership, and interviews with designers
and directors who worked at the theatre,
always with commentary and additional
notes by Pilbrow. Part five looks at the design
of the three theatres inside the NT,
and puts them in conversation with other
contemporary theatres around the world.
(See Modern Theatres 1950-2020, edited
by David Staples, Routledge, 2021, for
a comprehensive look at contemporary
theatres.) Part six examines the technical,
acoustic, and architectural changes that
have transpired over a period of 50 years.
Pilbrow notes that aside from Olivier himself,
the Building Committee included no
actors, the people who actually stand on
the stages. So, this section is composed
of interviews with actors Mark Rylance,
Simon Russell Beale, Michael Grandage,
and Dame Judi Dench. Part seven is a
four-page conclusion by Pilbrow.
This book is, in part, a tribute to
Olivier, the great actor and the first director
of the NT. Pilbrow not only tells the
story of Olivier's role in the creation of the
theatre-both company and building-but
also provides an extended and admiring
portrait of someone who was beloved by
everyone in the company, from the directors
and star actors to the theatre personnel.
Anecdotes abound: Olivier ate
in the canteen with the staff (sometimes
unrecognized) and he knew the birthdays
of the backstage crew members. Harry
Henderson, the housekeeper at the Old
Vic, declared, " He was the sort of bloke
that if another war started, you would
willingly say: 'That's it. I'll go anywhere
36 | THEATRE DESIGN & TECHNOLOGY | ISSUE 4, 2024
with him.' You'd be safe with him. He was
a gentleman and an ordinary chap. " And
the anecdotes contain delightful examples
of many instances of Olivier's salty
language.
The National Theatre of Great
Britain is an idea, a theatre company, and
an architectural structure, and Pilbrow
examines all these aspects in minute detail
not only from his own perspective,
but through the eyes of an incredible array
of participants and observers of the
creation of the theatre, from founding director
Laurence Olivier to the stage door
keeper. Two interrelated themes pervade
this book. One is the complex philosophical
question: What, exactly, is a national
theatre? How is a nation represented
onstage, and who decides? Who is such
a theatre intended for-who is the audience?
Where does the financial and material
support come from? What is the role
of the state in such an enterprise? Who
and what characteristics determine the
repertory? The second theme is more
practical and immediate: what is the size
and shape of the theatre or theatres-and
their support spaces-and what (and
again, who) determines the answer? This
latter question is what takes up the bulk
of Pilbrow's story.
Design by Committee
France has had the Comédie Française
since 1680; Austria, Sweden, and
Denmark have had national theatres
for a few hundred years. The closest the
United States ever came to such an entity
was the sadly short-lived Federal Theatre
Project in the 1930s under the leadership
Theatre Design & Technology - Winter 2025

Table of Contents for the Digital Edition of Theatre Design & Technology - Winter 2025
