Voila Vincent: Theatre and thespians

Orange, too, is another town that looks as though it has one foot in the past while attempting to dip a toe into an uncertain future. Its past was the interesting bit for us, as Orange has some standout ancient monuments, the Arc de Triomph and the Antique Teatro, for a start, reminders of days long gone when Roman generals and their legions sought to bring a little culture and distraction to the lives of their Roman colonists living in this little corner of the world. Both monuments are now listed as UNESCO World Heritage sites.

We parked beside the very pretty Arc de Triomph that is similar to the one in Paris, albeit smaller. Delightful low reliefs on many of its surfaces have, amazingly, survived for over a thousand years. The highlight, for us, was the marvellous Roman Antique Teatro, which is considered to be one of the finest in the world, and one of only three in this condition. The other two are in Turkey and Syria.

The theatre, and its exceptional audio guide, kept us enthralled for much of the afternoon. It has tiered semicircular stone seating, with a straight theatre wall at the back, finished off with two towers, one at each side for extras, stage hands, and sets. Dressing rooms and storage were built behind the wall. The stage in front of the theatre wall is long and narrow. Its stage originally had a wooden roof and, when needed, the seating area for the entire theatre could be covered with fabric blinds propelled along by pulleys. The supports for these can be still seen projecting from the external theatre wall.

The theatre wall is 103m long and about four stories high. It had many features that were useful as stage sets:colonnaded alcoves, balconies, bits of wall shaped to accentuate acoustics, and tall symmetrical doors for entrances and exits. And above, and overlooking all, is a niche which holds a full-sized statue of the reigning Roman emperor. This statue had a removable head, for with every new Roman head of state, there needed to be a change of head for the statue. Which puts a different slant on the saying: Off with his head.

The massive curtain that covered the stage at the start of each performance was lowered into a special curtain cavity dug out at the front of the stage, and the flat area beyond that, often paved, was called the orchestra. The lower seating tiers were for the noblemen; the upper for the poorer members of society. Plays went on all day. Folk would turn up at whatever time suited them to observe whatever might be going on, all the while eating, drinking and talking, and sometimes shouting, no doubt, from the peanut gallery.

Not all was quiet in Roman theatres in days of yore.