Philip Key talks to one of Liverpool’s top stage designers

Mar 14 2008 by Philip Key, Liverpool Daily Post

AS A teenager straight out of school, young Billy Meall arrived at the stage door of Liverpool’s Royal Court Theatre clutching his portfolio of art work and with dreams of becoming a theatre designer.

This week, after a lifetime in theatre, much of it spent designing some of the city’s greatest theatre triumphs, Meall was back at the Royal Court.

He is working on the set for Brick Up the Mersey Tunnels, Liverpool’s latest hit show, which opens tonight for its third run at the theatre.

Meall created the original designs for the comedy which has packed them in at the Royal Court ever since the show opened.

Curiously, Meall never did get a design job at the Royal Court for that first time of asking. But it certainly pointed him on the right road.

Anfield-born, he had moved to Kirkby at the age of 11, where he studied at St Kevin’s School. "It was there that they really encouraged me to get into the art side of things," he says.

One project was to design a set for HMS Pinafore. "I nipped into Rushworth and Dreaper to get a record, and on the front of it was this set for the operetta. So I just copied it."

So, with a GCE in art, a subject he was always good at (he credits a sign-writing grandfather for the artistic genes), he nervously arrived at the Royal Court Theatre where a man in overalls was painting the stage door.

"Eh, mate, how do you get into theatre?" he cheekily asked. The man told him to return that evening and ask for Mr O’Neill, the stage manager.

Meall spent the rest of the day wandering around town, and did return, where he discovered the door painter now attired in suit and tie. "I am Mr O’Neill," he explained.

The Royal Court was not producing shows at that time, but Charles O’Neill, later to become manager of both the Royal Court and Empire Theatres, suggested he try the Liverpool Playhouse down the road, where a student designer had just left. "The only problem is that they pay just £1 a week," he warned. This was the early 1960s.

Meall went nevertheless and accepted the £1 a week, joining a company that included a young Patrick Stewart. "He was only in his teens and quite bald, then. They bought him a Beatle wig which he wore for the Christmas party.

"That pound, however, would pay my fares from Kirkby, and Mr O’Neill had offered me work as a prop boy, call boy and dresser when needed."

He spent a year at the Playhouse cleaning props and visiting the Royal Court, where most of the stage hands were milkmen. "That was because milkmen finished early and could do the Wednesday matinees."

Having spotted a job offer in The Stage for a carpenter and apprentice scene painter with the English Stage Company at London’s Royal Court Theatre, he applied on the Friday and was there by the Monday.

He learned a lot with that company, but returned to Liverpool to work at Liverpool’s Royal Court as a prop master. Among the shows was the first production of the musical Oliver!, with Sean Kenny’s magnificent set.

"Cameron Mackintosh was the prop boy on that show. He later bought the set for £800 and kept it in a church in Brixton. Six months later, he hired it back to the show for £800 a week." Mackintosh is today a multi-millionaire and one of the country’s most successful producers.

Because of his scene-painting skills, Meall was hired by the Playhouse as assistant designer. One day, artistic director Anthony Tuckey handed Meall a script by a new writer and asked him to design it for a studio production. It was Fat Harold and the Last 26, the first play by Alan Bleasdale.

When Leslie Lawton took over as artistic director, he asked Meall to design for the main house – and there was another Bleasdale script, Down the Dock Road.