Theatre

Ben Evans at Work

Ben Evans
technical manager, Trafalgar Studios
‘I spend most of my life in the theatre, so much so that I call it “the wife”. I’ve named this one Eleanor. She’s my ultimate nemesis. I don’t know if you’ve seen “Gone in 60 Seconds” but it’s a very similar feeling. You just know that this one’s going to be the death of you.‘I do everything. My dream at the moment is to buy some land and build a house on it, and after 15 years working as a technical manager in a theatre, I’ve got enough experience in everything – chipping, plumbing, electrics – to do the lot. You’ve got to know how everything works and be able to fix it if it doesn’t. Almost every show you work on has less money, less men and certainly less time than you need. But we pull it off, every time. Feature continues

‘I’m not really a theatre-goer as such, I don’t go and see shows in my time off, but I wanted to work in theatre because it’s full of oddballs, and I thought it’s really the only place I’ll fit in. My first job was in the Fire Brigade, and when I got to London I saw a job advertised for a theatre fireman, so that’s how I started off, back when this place was called The Whitehall.

‘The show I had some of the best laughs on was “Up for Grabs”, with Madonna. She’s really not as bad as everybody makes out. She’s quite a good laugh. But the theatre was surrounded by 200 people every night who tore us to pieces trying to get at the props. I tell you, the Fire Service was a lot less dangerous than working in a theatre. There’s just no accounting for the populace.’