Steaming in the Baths

When Shakespeare wrote that "all the world's a stage", he didn't have Harrogate's historic Turkish Baths in mind. But this summer the Victorian building will turn off the heat and turn on the footlights when Harrogate Theatre stages a show there.

The promenade production of Nell Dunn's play Steaming will be staged at the Baths, which have re-opened following a £1m facelift.

The idea originated with the theatre's artistic director Hannah Chissick. It means the Baths join an ever-growing list of unusual venues for plays. Public gardens, cathedrals, pubs, hotel rooms and even a car have all provided temporary stages for productions.

Harrogate's baths are considered the most beautiful and most complete of the three remaining 19th century Turkish Baths in England, with Arabic tiles, the original arched roofs, oak and mahogany changing rooms, and even a listed toilet.

Matching play to the location is important. Steaming is a perfect fit as the setting is a Turkish baths, where six women escape their daily routine and share secrets.

"I've known the play for quite a long time and it was always one I wanted to do. This is a perfect opportunity. It coincides with the time of year when the theatre is closed for maintenance, so we can take theatre to a different space," says Chissick.

Former Emmerdale and Fat Friends star Lisa Riley has been cast in the promenade production, which will find the audience moving around to watch scenes in different areas of the building. Space restrictions mean audiences will be limited to around 50 at each performance. "It's going to be a unique experience," says Chissick.

Staging a play amid the Victorian splendour means the Baths will be closed to the public during performances. The heat will be turned off, although the temperature will still be warm. Unlike Baths users, audiences won't be asked to strip but will be advised to dress appropriately for the heat.

Chissick has become a fan of the Baths since joining the theatre two years ago. "Before I couldn't really quite understand what it was all about. Then I went there and it's an incredibly relaxing couple of hours. I could see how the play came about," she says.

She has yet to decide how much cast nudity will be involved. The original staging, which had a pool as part of the set, included full nudity. "I don't want to unnerve people. I've done shows with nudity before and it's a case of directing in a way that everyone is comfortable with. It's possible it won't be as extreme as in the script," she says.

She's keen to extend Harrogate Theatre activities beyond the conventional stage. HT2, the venue's youth theatre, previously presented The Mysteries outdoors in Harrogate's Valley Gardens.

The autumn season will see the main house transformed into two separate, self-contained auditoriums so that Alan Ayckbourn's two plays, House and Garden, can be presented in tandem.

Chissick has already introduced dinner-theatre in the small upstairs Studio Theatre, where 40 people enjoyed a meal and a top musical in an intimate setting.

Steaming will have daytime performances as well as evening shows to attract people who don't normally go to the theatre as well as tourists.

"We hope that people who'd usually go to sessions at the Baths might come to see the play instead. It's a very busy tourist time and the theatre is usually shut. This is a way for the Turkish Baths and ourselves to raise our profiles.

"Harrogate is full of interesting spaces. It's a huge cultural resource," she says.

The town isn't alone in possessing distinctive architecture to use as a backdrop in productions. York Minister made a magnificent and appropriate setting for the York Millennium Mystery Plays. The acoustics weren't perfect but the impressive setting was ample compensation.

Durham Theatre Company presented community productions of The Mysteries and the musical Godspell in Durham Cathedral. Less obvious was its third choice, And The Devil Came Too, a musical adaptation of traditional stories about Noah and the flood.

The Royal Shakespeare Company tours small-scale productions to sports halls and leisure centres. Exercise gives way to drama when the RSC visits Northallerton as the leisure centre is transformed into a 500-seat auditorium.

Newcastle-based theatre company Stage Focus went down the pub for a recent show, Mine's A Short, performing new short plays and sketches in city pubs. "It gives people the chance to have a drink and see a show at the same time in an informal, relaxed atmosphere," says member Chris Collett.

Stage Focus's usual performance space is the Grand Hall of Newcastle's Castle Keep, where shows have included Dracula, A Christmas Carol and The Lion, The Witch And The Wardrobe. "The hall isn't that great in terms of size as we can only fit in 70 people, but it works very well," he says.

"The downside is that in winter it's absolutely freezing. You have people wearing hats and gloves, and bringing blankets with them."

Size doesn't matter. A top London hotel played host to a one-man play performed in one of the bedrooms. The actor was on one bed, with his audience sitting on the other bed.

At last year's Edinburgh Festival, a tenement flat became the venue for a one-woman show. The audience followed the actress, accompanied by a keyboard player, around the flat. Another Edinburgh show was performed in the back of a car with two members of the public as the audience.

Scottish theatre company Grid Iron staged Decky Does A Bronco in Newcastle's Nunsmoor Park on a national tour. The set consisted of playground swings, where the play's characters, five youths, were literally hanging around.

The weather is the problem with outdoor theatre in this country. Companies can only risk it during the summer. Cleveland Theatre Company ventured outside, staging A Midsummer Night's Dream in Valley Gardens, Saltburn. The audience trekked around the site, seeking fairies and lovers in various parts of the park.

CTC also produced a musical version of Chaucer's Canterbury Tales in Preston Park, Eaglescliffe. Jugglers, fire-eaters, local bands and roast meat on a spit helped create a medieval atmosphere. Contingency plans meant the £100,000 show could be performed inside a huge 400-capacity tent if it rained.

Director Alastair Ramsay made the audience part of the action. "Everyone is a pilgrim and involved. The show has to be tailored to the site. I don't believe in just taking a play and putting it outside," he said.

The mysterious and beautiful Mulgrave Woods at Sandsend, near Whitby, are the setting for a site-specific theatre project next month created by Wilson and Wilson. This will take an audience of just 40 people a night on a four-mile journey - on foot and on transport - into the open spaces and secret corners of this natural landscape.

Live performance, installations and music will unfold around them. Sites will include foresters' huts, enclosed pathways, individual trees, the ruins of Mulgrave Old Castle and river bridges.

"Mulgrave will layer up many time periods, images and impressions, creating an intense intellectual, emotional and imaginative experience," say the producers.

More importantly, perhaps for the audience's point of view regarding an outside performance is the vital question: is it going to rain?

* Steaming can be seen at Harrogate Turkish Baths from July 12-30. Tickets (01423) 502116.

* Mulgrave runs from June 11 to July 3. Tickets (01947) 602124.