London at the End of the Century:A Book of Gossip
a Beckett, Arthur William
1900
A VISIT TO THE PROPERTY ROOM.
And now, having talked quite long enough about the past, I turn to a time of far more immediate moment, the last of Harris's pantomimes. I was permitted to wander about Drury Lane at my own sweet will, and follow the bent of my fancy. I shall never | |
105 | forget the scene. The theatre was turned into a very hive of industry. Business is invariably very brisk in the front of the house, but just before the production of the pantomime the work of behind the scenes finds its way into the auditorium. Work was going on everywhere. The very passages were filled with busy assistants in the pantomime production. Here was a chorus practising a glee, there a part of a ballet practising a new step under the direction of my excellent friend Mr. D'Auban, and yonder a number of seamstresses hard at work putting the finishing touches to some costumes. I made for the property room. I ascended a number of stairs, and found myself near the sky. All the work was done. The hundreds and thousands of required for the pantomime were completed, and all that had to be done was to take them to the stage and have them in readiness for those who had to use them. There were plaster moulds weighing hundred-weights, in which had been cast the enormous oyster shells that were to figure in some of the fairy scenes. There were all sorts and conditions of-well, everything. Fairies' wings for the transformation scene; animated gunpowder barrels for Guido's plot; heads of savages for Crusoe's Island. If I were to attempt an inventory, I would have to fill hundreds of pages of this volume. |
