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Ushers

The House of Usher

by Christopher Campbell.

See Front of House in discover: Making Theatre

Audience member in foyer on mobile phone: “I tell you what, even if you don't like the play, you'll certainly find the ushers entertaining…”

On a night when all three of the National's auditoriums are open, there are 24 ushers on duty. On any given evening over the last couple of years, the person showing you to your seat or taking your coat or selling you this programme may have been an actor, a photographer, a writer, a design student, an archaeologist, a dancer, a Sanskrit scholar or a dentist.



“I don't know how the public make do with seeing a play only once!”

When the National Theatre opened, in 1976, the typical West End theatre usher was a retired theatre enthusiast doing the job voluntarily. John Langley, the Theatre Manager, explains that it was a deliberate decision at the time to use younger people. “Drama students from the likes of RADA and Webber Douglas were happy to do the job for not much money in return for subsidised food in the canteen and the chance to see the shows for nothing. The advantage for the theatre was an atmosphere of enthusiasm and eccentricity. The disadvantage was unreliability of attendance and a sense sometimes that looking after the audience might be a secondary consideration. With changes in service culture and employment law, the situation has changed sharply over the last decade. The posts are now advertised and a much wider range of people is taken on. Around 75% of our ushers are now on contract, with the rest working as casual staff.”



“I remember we used to wear outfits designed in the 70s. The skirts matched the carpets in the foyer and if you stood in the right spot against a wall you became invisible.”

It can sometimes be forgotten that the first duty of the ushers is the safety and security of the audience. Every evening before the theatres are opened to the public there's a fire drill in each one. Over their dressing-room relays, actors can hear a ghostly audience being smoothly evacuated.



In the occasional event of illness, too, it is invariably the ushers who are first on hand to take action. For many people, their chief point of human contact with the theatre will be with an usher. John Langley points out the paradox whereby this disproportionate responsibility is borne by some of the National's most modestly paid staff.



“One night one of the critics said to me on his way in to the theatre: 'I bet my seat isn't reserved.' I said, 'I bet it is.' He came back a few minutes later and handed me £10. 'I can't take tips', I told him. 'It's not a tip. It's a bet and you won.'”

“When all three theatres are running in rep, there's a fair variety of tasks”, says House Manager Alison Rae, herself a former usher, “in any one auditorium they might be on one of two or three different plays, in the circle or the stalls, selling programmes or on cloakroom duty.” Nonetheless, I wonder what it's like to see so many plays so many times. “Wonderful”, says Frances Campbell, doyenne of NT ushers with nearly 26 years in the job. “You get to see plays developing and performances too. You may see a moment of magic one night and wonder if they'll pull it off again the next. People who work here as ushers are changed by the experience; particularly younger people are affected by seeing all these dilemmas played out on all these stages in all these plays. They may not even notice the changes themselves, but we do.”



“Before a performance of The Madness of George III, a gentleman approached me in the foyer and said he'd lost his ticket. I asked him if he could remember his seat number and he thought he could, so I went into the Lyttelton to check. There was a gentleman already in the seat, bent over his programme. I leaned over him and said, 'Excuse me, Sir, are you sure you're in the right seat?' He looked up and said, 'I beg your pardon?' It was Prince Charles.”

Many people who have worked as NT ushers have gone on to other jobs in the theatre world. There have been actors over the years including the late Christopher Reeve, Simon Callow, Susannah Harker and Ben Price (Footballers' Wives). The manager of the NT bookshop, the Head of Platforms and Events and the Head of Casting all worked here as ushers before ascending to their current magnificence. In fact the Head of Casting, Toby Whale, told me that his days as an usher were amongst the happiest times of his life and then drifted off into nostalgic reverie.



“We often get asked to track down people's spouses. One man who'd lost his wife described her to me and I set off in pursuit. I came upon a woman who seemed to match the description and approached her. 'Excuse me, madam, have you lost your husband?' 'No,' she snapped, 'And I haven't got yours either!'”

I asked Frances for her most memorable on-stage moments over the years she's been here. “There was a play in the Cottesloe in which Ralph Richardson was appearing. It wasn't completely clear when the play was over; the ending was a little unclear. One night, as the audience hesitated, Sir Ralph turned to them and said, 'That's it, folks!' Above all, I shall never forget Ian Charleson playing Hamlet. To hear him deliver 'To be or not to be', in the full knowledge that he was himself dying and had very little time left. It was quite…it was unforgettable.” And could she nominate a worst moment? “There was a preview of Glengarry Glen Ross where the actors cut an absolutely huge chunk and couldn't get back on track. The result was that the performance finished half an hour early and the audience came pouring out and took us completely by surprise!”



“We do quite often get blamed for the failings of London Transport.”

As well as the health and safety aspects of the job and the ticket-checking and the help with finding seats, ushers are asked for all kinds of information about all aspects of London. They get asked to recommend other shows. They provide directions to landmarks and hotels. They'll suggest places to eat. Oh, and they'll walk your guide dog during the show.



“I was once offered a £50 bribe to let someone jump the returns queue for Stuff Happens. I refused, of course.”

What do you need to be an usher? Well, it helps to be interested in watching plays, naturally, and some are easier to watch than others, but you also need to be interested in people generally. Ushers see people from all over the world and all strata of society, and in all sorts of moods. There are celebratory parties and there are people who have been so touched by some aspect of the play they have seen that they feel the absolute necessity to talk to someone about it.



By the time our audience arrives for an evening performance, many, if not most, of the people who work for the National Theatre have gone home. One of our ushers is likely to be the first person you see here and the last.



And, of course, if all you need is to be shown to your seat…



“Someone once asked me how to get to the Cotswolds. I sent them to the Cottesloe. That must have been what they meant. Mustn't it..?”

© Christopher Campbell, April 2005



Christopher Campbell is Assistant Literary Manager of the National Theatre



This article was commissioned by Lyn Haill, Head of Publications, and former usher at Chichester Festival Theatre for the NT's first seasons there under Laurence Olivier