There are legendary stories about ghosts at the Theatre Royal. The strongest tradition is that the ghost of the 18th century actress Sarah Siddons walks the theatre.
Guides taking parties round can sometimes be heard to say and if you're very lucky, you may catch a glimpse of our resident theatre ghost Sarah Siddons. But will you though? Why Sarah S?
Rifling through the history of the Theatre Royal, there is nothing to suggest she has any claim to phantasmagorical fame. The first time she worked in King Street, in March of 1779, the Bath Theatre Company had seized the opportunity of the Bristol season being finished to play a brief, unscheduled season in King Street.
Smarting from her humiliating reviews as Portia, which she had played to the daunting experience of Garrick's Shylock, she had come to Bath to learn her craft more thoroughly before chancing her reputation further on the London stage. The Bristol experiment proved a success (in spite of contravening the terms of Bristol's lease) and for the next three years she commuted from Bath to Bristol, playing up to 30 roles in a season.
Exhausting though her time here must have been it hardly form s the basis for the ghost traditions. When she left Bristol in June 1782 (after raising £106. 15s on her benefit) her loyalty to the King Street company must be in some doubt as, using her three children as her excuse to leave, she declined to appear at the subsequent benefits, at which, by that time, she would have undoubtedly proved a major box-office draw.
So where do the Sarah myths come from? Another Sarah with a far less glittering career may well hold the answer. When W. M'Cready (father of the actor W. C. Macready) took over the management of the theatre in March 1819, he brought with him from Newcastle his mistress, Sarah Desmond. They had been lovers for many years, their son, George, who was born in 1814, being passed off for some time as M'Cready's nephew. Sarah was 35 years younger than her lover and had established herself on the northern circuits as an actress of some repute. She became his leading lady in Bristol and finally, in 1821, they married.
W.C. Macready, child of William's first marriage, was only three years younger than his stepmother but it appears to have been a harmonious family, with W.C. Macready appearing many times in Bristol. The theatre flourished under M'Cready, gas lighting was installed and the building was painted and refurbished.
In 1829 W. M'Cready died and for three years Mr. Brunton managed the theatre, Sarah continuing as leading lady. It finally went broke, and after much persuasion, Mrs. Mac' was prevailed upon to take on the burden which by now was a decaying building, early in 1834. With limited funds, she cleaned the theatre as best she could, and had a new act drop and green curtain installed. Her years as manager are punctuated with respectful letters to proprietors, asking for minimal improvements and repairs to the paint shop (then over the pit) which threatened to collapse into the auditorium under the weight of scenery, and provision for a fire in her room in winter.
At the end of one season she made a proud curtain speech, thanking the audience for their support at a time when several regional theatres had had to close before the end of their seasons from lack of funds. In 1844 Mrs Mac's daughter, Mazzerina (she must have got the name from a play.) married James Henry Chute, who was then stage manager, thus founding a theatrical dynasty which continued in Bristol until the 1930's.
In 1843 Mrs. Mac took over the management of Bath, re-establishing an old tradition and, with the aid of her son-in-law, administered both theatres. In October of the following year, news of the death of her son, George, who had been a ship's surgeon, reached her from India. The Very Eccentric and Sibylline Old Lady carried on running both theatres, until her death at the age of 63 on March 8, 1852, when she was buried beside William in Bristol Cathedral.
In all 20 years of her management, she never defaulted on the rent (a rare record in those days) or failed to pay her actors on time, even if it meant paying them out of her own pocket. Surely, someone who in over 30years, had known such joys and sorrows in the old theatre, must have some claim on its history.
Jane Cooke, head scenic artist at the Theatre Royal, who has done a considerable amount of research into Sarah M'cready, says perhaps at some point the story of the two Sarahs became entangled and the more famous one emerged to fill the obligatory role of theatre ghost.?
She adds, “For those of you who remain skeptical on the subject, there are a number of reports of a woman in black (Sarah M'Cready was a widow for 20 years) walking across the P/S fly floor towards the old offices above the auditorium and two fly-men have heard a strange woman whispering in their ears during a show.
"Of all the nights I have worked alone in the building, one in particular stands out. I was working alone on stage when all the lights on the P/S fly floor suddenly started swinging wildly, as if hit by an unseen hand, and continued to do so for an hour without slowing down. Not the first time this has happened. What set me thinking was “ I was working in the early hours of the morning of March 8, the day Mrs.Mac died."
The actress June Barrie recalls being alone in the building resting after a matinee performance when she heard a woman's voice calling. She thought someone had been accidentally shut in, so she went round opening doors. Eventually she tried a door to the auditorium. "The auditorium is always hot after a performance", she says, "But when I opened the door on this occasion I was struck by a blast of ice-cold air. I just turned and ran from the building leaving everything behind even my handbag."
Peter Harris, who worked at the theatre for years as a voluntary unpaid member of the stage crew, has another ghost story to tell.
A sighting of the ghost of Mrs. Siddons occurred in 1946. The first production by the Bristol Old Vic was the Beaux Stratagem in which all the cast were dressed in 18th century costumes. In the course of the middle act, Yvonne Mitchell had to make an entrance from the off prompt side. To do this, she had to pass under the stage and climb the rickety staircase to the entrance at the back. During one performance, as she hurried up the stairs and paused in the wings, awaiting her cue, she was conscious of another female figure wearing a similar costume to herself standing in the wings. Thinking no more of it she made her entrance.
However, this little event kept nagging at her memory and so she checked up to see whether any of the other women in the cast were in the wings but realized they were all on the other side of the stage. Later, she looked carefully at the portrait of Mrs.Siddons which hung in the front office and realized that this was how the mysterious lady had appeared to her. Thereafter she was convinced that she had seen the Ghost of the Theatre Royal.
Appearing this month in 2000
Title: One Love Author: Kwame Dawes