Location, location

One of the motivations for my adapting Wolfram von Eschenbach’s ‘Parzival’ in the first place – and in particular for the decision to stage it as a promenade – was that my previous school – at which it was first staged – is possessed of a particularly fine set of ancient buildings, some dating back to the school’s foundation in the 15th Century. The desire to see spaces such as the chapel, the original schoolrooms and the courtyards and cloisters pressed into service as theatre spaces was – frankly – irresistible.

Equally, one of the prime challenges of re-staging the production in my current school (which is only sixty years younger when all’s said and done) is that – as a result of its relocation in the late 1960s – nothing on the site is more than 35 years old. There are certainly some interesting spaces (in addition to the normal theatrical venues) but none of them can provide that authentic patina of age.

No matter. We must make best use of what we have. Here are some of the chosen locales. Interestingly, the newest buildings provide some of the most appropriate settings, being built – as they are – using ‘traditional’ materials and styles.

There is a splendidly traditional ‘collegiate’ court – which did not exist at all until just before Christmas last year…

…not to mention an atrium which houses one or two bits of such antiquity as the School yet possesses.