Northern Broadsides, as their name suggests, are a theatre company based in Yorkshire at Dean Clough, an old cotton mill in the town of Halifax. In the nineteenth century when the mill was built its workers would have worn wooden clogs and they must have made an unmistakable noise on their way to and from work over the cobbled streets of the town.
Clogs were used to great effect by the actors in this production of
Richard III. As musical director Conrad Nelson explains,
their use originatedin the company’s first production of this play some fifteen years previously when a decision was taken to re-imagine the battle of Bosworth by using clog dancing. The noise the clogs made on the wooden floor of the rehearsal room was tremendous, so much so that Conrad insisted that all the cloggers wore ear plugs.
The combination of a harsh winter and the distinctly chilly rehearsal attic at the West Yorkshire Playhouse ensured that the company found their frequent clog dancing rehearsals a useful and highly effective means of warming up. As Conrad Nelson pointed out, they were also a means of creating a bond between company members.
