ROH production workshop at Thurrock tour

[toursenlair]

Has anyone done the tour of the production workshop? Is it worth the trek from central London?

[Geoff]

Love to know if it is worth the effort. We’ve never managed it yet. For an attraction which seems well suited to our technical minded teenager, their date schedule keeps skipping half-term.

[bridiem]

I went 2 years ago and really enjoyed it (though it was - by my standards - rather a long walk from the station at Purfleet). It was co-ordinated by the Ballet Association, so the person doing the tour knew we had that interest and geared the tour accordingly as far as possible. We saw where scenery is made and stored (with the set for the new Swan Lake in preparation) and ditto costumes (including seeing a tutu for SL in progress). I think that what they can show you depends on what is happening at any given time, and maybe the quality of the tour depends on the quality of the tour-giver, but ours was good. So I personally thought it was worth the effort.

[Don Q Fan]

I went a few years ago it was very good but the day I went on was not particularly ballet themed but was costumed themed, it was ok.  I would have liked to have seen much more in the way of ballet costumes but the place was fairly new so hadn't got that organised yet.  We toured the buildings and saw some of the scenery for Frankenstein being painted and then there was a workshop making costumes for some of the characters in the ballet.  We got to try on some out of copyright opera costumes as well.

I stayed in a Premier Inn nearby because I'm not local, but I made the mistake of walking (as bus had gone) from the station to the hotel only I took a wrong turn and ended up walking miles out of the way along a pavement-less dual carriageway - very scary indeed and very lucky nothing untoward happened to me - never again though - it is a funny station as it's not really a town just comes out on a main road so to be safe book a taxi in advance to meet you off the train.  I was lucky a kind lady (who is now  a ballet friend) on the tour gave me a lift back to the station after the tour at Thurrock.