Douglas: [00:00:01] In terms of volunteering? Well, far more volunteers, of course, than the present theatre. We only had about four or five a night at the Blue Box. You tended to do everything, tear the tickets, showed people to their seats. And we sold ice creams like they used to in the cinema, with a tray around your neck and you go down to the front and the spotlight would go on to you. [laughs] That was fun. What was so amazing about Blue Box is once you’re inside, it was a proper theatre and the outside it looks such a mess, you know, and just a collection of tin boxes really. But, yeah, it was great. But as you walked, it was rigged and as you walked down to the front to sell your ice creams, it creaked and the floor bounced a bit. You could tell it was a fairly flimsy thing really.
Interviewer: [00:00:58] And I heard there was one row that leaked?
Douglas: [00:01:01] Row F was the leaky row, yes. There was also noisey in the acorn season. [laughs] The wind was blowing, the acorns fell on the roof. It was constant percussion. It was great. It really was. Lindsay Temple used to get, particularly ballet, out of season. I mean, you couldn’t really operate it during the cold, wet, winter, but spring and autumn he’d get I think it was called the London City Ballet or something like that. And they came regularly. But of course they had to rejig all their ballet because the lights on the stage were quite low. There was no headroom, really. And so any lift had to be adjusted and any leaps [laughs] shortened, otherwise they disappeared off the side of the stage and there were no wings, really had matter of two or three feet.