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How right he was! required a couple of
‘No curtain…no beefy boys backstage
curtain…’ reverberated to haul the drape
in my head as a backward in a reversed
wonderful sequence of U-shape as the little
memories of theatres screen was flown in or
and their house out. It seemed to jam
curtains surfaced. on the bottom of the
Those marvellous fire curtain every time
drapes were an when it was in the
intrinsic element of raised position. That
theatre and cinema screen was a problem.
design. They offered Why hadn’t they dealt
the promise of magical with it like the Tivoli
things concealed from had and painted a
the eye just waiting to screen in the middle of
be revealed as they the fire curtain? It was
parted, offering a total as if they were trying
escape from life. to distance the ads
Curtains were part of from the legitimacy of
the personality of every live performance. The
theatre. Some were matter was not solved
great, some not so with the advent of the
Tivoli Bourke Street: fire curtain with a painted slide screen.
great. Lets recall a new, rich red curtain
few… with the golden fringe which appeared
effect when the old fire curtain
The curtain at the Metro Collins before poor Garnet Carroll was cold in
descended. The billow would happen
Street had its problems. It was a blue- the ground.
again as the fire curtain was cranked up.
grey brocade number with no fringe I found an old photo of the
With the draft flowing full force,
and it billowed along the bottom in a Princess and there was a rich
the bottom of the curtain was lifted off
series of reversed U-shapes stopped burgundy house curtain in use then. It
the stage just enough to show a
only by the screen behind. Not good – was embroidered with romanesque
thrilling glimpse of scuttling feet. The
but unusual. When the tabs first curlicues and motifs, a little like the
stage manager, aware of this, would
opened, it took a lot of time for the Covent Garden tab minus the EIIR’s
order the tab dropped a little more to
trapped air to escape, so the screening (the Queen’s monogram), but with an
stop this illicit viewing, which was
started with two overhangs of elaborately tasseled fringe. It was
one of the benefits of sitting in the
billowing material, like upside down never thrown out and finished up
front row. My appetite was always
ice cream cones, at the sides. These hanging behind the new red curtain as
whetted by this.
took quite a while to flatten out. a lining to stop the stage work lights
The Tivoli curtain was shiny grey,
The Metro also had a front set of showing through at interval. I was
but a tad drab. There was a sort of
very heavy French action curtains, given the chance to fly it in and out
silvery white finge on the bottom –
hardly ever used. Now and again they one afternoon when the house was
basic, but elegant.
were opened and closed to see if they dark. It was very heavy.
still worked. Come to think
of it, the Princess
Billowing also happened at the
also had a mighty
Regent Collins Street with the silver
draft. I remember
satin French action curtain, except it
as a child sitting
billowed outward (see front cover.)
fascinated as a
The main, blood red act drop would
ridiculously small
descend slowly, flattening the satiny
oblong screen for
billows with style, as the footlights
advertisements was
changed the satin from white to blue
lowered and raised
then pink. That crimson house curtain
in front of the
from the 1947 rebuild was stored for
house curtain –
years in the fly tower of the un-
dark blue with a
restored Capitol Sydney. I wonder
rather grubby
where it is now? The present curtain in
whitish fringe –
the refurbished Regent is not lit as it
before a
was in the Hoyts’ days, so the colour is
performance and at
not as vibrant.
interval.
The Tivoli curtain did this billow act Applause for John Dudley and Marea Wolkowsky at the
This task
too at times, but with one almighty Princess, in front of the embroidered curtain. The production
billow that was also flattened with great was Fidelio (1949).
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