'As dreams are made on'

In a rare glimpse behind the curtain, Selina Cadell shares the backstage secrets of appearing in The Tempest at the Theatre Royal Drury Lane earlier this year

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My family has been in the theatre for four generations. I'm related to Sir Squire Bancroft, one of the first great actor-managers, who, with his wife, Effie, produced and managed the Prince of Wales Theatre, London W1, during the 19th century. As well as encouraging writers to have a say in their work, they introduced new modern drama to London and gave actors not only salaries, but wardrobes, too.

Today, at the Theatre Royal Drury Lane, London WC2, I am sitting in the most comfortable dressing room I've ever known throughout my 50-year career—I not only have a wardrobe, but a bed, a sofa, a bathroom, heating and lights around my dressing table. For my first entrance, I am called to the stage over the tannoy. I walk down the stairs that many famous feet have trod: Sir John Gielgud, Noél Coward, Sarah Siddons and Edmund Kean. There was no tannoy system in those days; the stage manager would simply knock on the door and call out the time until the last call for ‘beginners’.

Backstage, behind the black scene flats that separate us from the stage, is the props table, lit by a bare blue-light bulb. On its white surface, yellow and brown duct tape marks out differently shaped sections, each one labelled, for example, 'glasses' or 'Stephano's comfort'. This is no nod to the much-maligned world of the luvvie's drinking habits (in 1973, as an usherette at the Old Vic, my first task was to go around the actors' dressing rooms collecting interval drinks orders, paid for each night by the boss, Sir Laurence Olivier). The props table is where Uncle Vanya's pistol would be placed, Charlotta's magic cards (The Cherry Orchard) or Dotty's plate of sardines (Noises Off) and 'glasses' marks where actors leave their own spectacles before they go on stage.