There is a wonderfully still moment at the beginning of a theatre production when the audience has settled into its seats and is visited by ghosts of plays past. On a muggy weekday morning at the Museum Theatre, Egmore, time, history and the spirits of actors, musicians, dancers and art aficionados hang heavily in the air, like the newly-furbished velvet curtains on stage.
The 1896-built theatre is part of the Government Museum complex founded by Scottish surgeon Edward Balfour, an Orientalist, who also pioneered forest conservation and public health in India. Buildings on this complex were constantly raised till the early 19th Century and this campus on Pantheon Road houses the red-brick colonnaded museum with its prized Chola bronzes and antiquities from the time of Emperor Augustus when sea-faring Romans first made landfall in the Indian peninsula; the Connemara library whose stunning interiors compete with its vast literary collection; and the recently-renovated National Art Gallery.
The Museum Theatre, Egmore | Photo Credit: S Shiva Raj
As the first Officer-in-Charge of the museum circa 1851, Balfour, a polyglot, ensured that the unusual objets d’art drew in more than two lakh people a year in the decade it was founded. When he realised that a live tiger cub drew more crowds, he opened a zoo with nearly 300 animals; it later moved to People’s Park then behind Central Station.
The complex was built during the heyday of the British Raj with most of it designed by Henry Irwin — he built the Museum Theatre as a red-brick building in Classical Italianate style. N Sundararajan, Assistant Director-in charge, Technical, Department of Museums, says, “Over time there was seepage from the domed ceiling, leading to mold on the walls. It necessitated renovation which was carried out over three years at a cost of ₹3.4 crores both by the Public Works Department and Jeernodhar Conservators.”
Tipu Sultan’s cannon at Museum Theatre | Photo Credit: S Shiva Raj
When you cut through a large swathe of time, the one constant that has remained is Museum Theatre as a popular venue for the performing arts. From outside it appears to the viewer in layers, its top crowned with a sash of white paint like a daintily-iced cake. It is also perhaps among the rare few theatres surrounded by cannon captured in colonial conquests from as far afield as Burma and Tranquebar — among them the carriage-mounted gun taken by Colonel Draper during the siege of Manila (1762) and Tipu Sultan’s tiger-head cannon from the siege of Seringapatam (1799). Up a flight of hewn granite steps is the double-arched, broad colonnaded verandah where the audience gathers in anticipation before walking in through tall teak doors.
The inside resembles an oval Elizabethan theatre where the seating is gallery-style with the side and central aisles leading to the pit separated by ornate grille work. The pit with its rows of seating closest to the stage has the premium seats. When it was first constructed, the chairs were of wood and early theatre goers brought along a cushion to minimise discomfort. Later, the 550 seats were cushioned. “Now we have reduced the number to 450,” says Sundararajan, speaking of the olive and wine-colour upholstered seats. “The space now allows for push-back chairs.”
The interior of Museum Theatre | Photo Credit: S Shiva Raj
Electric lights illumined the theatre only in 1909 and air-conditioning only by the turn of this century. Earlier, ceiling fans and breeze from the open doors ventilated the hall but the noisy road outside took away from the theatre experience.
A grand chandelier hangs from the ceiling and subtle lights mounted on the walls showcase floral plaster work in hues of mustard and white. Above the stage is more ornate plaster work, and the midnight-blue velvet and maroon drapes glisten under powerful spotlights.
“The wooden stage has been redone, keeping the trap-door on the floor intact. The lift that was worked manually and acted as a dramatic tool has now been motorised,” says Sundararajan, adding, “The acoustics continue to be superb; a new audio system has been installed. There has never been a need for an amplifier.”
The stage at Museum Theatre | Photo Credit: S Shiva Raj
The Museum Theatre’s acoustics has always been its crown jewel, a fact vouched for by the city’s performing arts community. Earlier, even the faintest whisper and sigh on stage could be heard across the theatre, which has seen romance, murder, laughter, and anger unravel over the course of the century.
PC Ramakrishna, theatre thespian and past president of the Madras Players says, “Museum Theatre is home. We’ve performed here for close to 50 years and there are very few places in India that offer such a rich theatrical experience. I first went on stage here in 1969 for Arthur Miller’s The Crucible, in which Girish Karnad too featured. The stage has an apron that allows for the actor to commune with the audience personally. There is ample parking, the rates are reasonable, and of course there is the incredible acoustics. We didn’t use mics upto the 1990s and we somehow got heard. It’s a great place for chamber music too and should be used more for the performing arts. But the changes have to be more than just cosmetic and more cast and crew friendly.”
The Madras Amateur Dramatic Society was among the earliest theatre groups that regularly performed here. During the War years the theatre featured fund-raisers and according to The Hindu (dated April 26, 1950) was even considered for housing the enlarged Legislative Assembly of the Madras State after the first general elections.
The stage flanked by a generously large green-room has hosted school annual days, Christmas musicals, jazz and opera concerts and that gold standard it is home to — a stage play. With its return as a performance space, the Museum Theatre continues to remain a solid, touchable survival from the best years of our lives.
