My Earliest Recollection of The National

I remember the first time I walked through the doors of the National Theatre, it was 1988, I was 29 years old and walking in from the street’s harsh sunlight I was immediately embraced by a feeling of serenity. The space was dark and cool, and it felt like that Grand Old Dame, The Nash, was wrapping her arms around me. Little did I know I would still be here 36 years later.

On that day I was there for a job interview with Micheal Heasler, the company accountant, for the position of Bookkeeper. Hard to believe but the National didn’t even own a computer back then and all the accounts were handwritten in large blue ledgers. Walking up to the Box Office the first thing I saw was a lady sitting at an old plug-in switchboard and she was knitting. Introducing myself she put her knitting on the desk and reported my arrival to Mr Heasler. I remember thinking I had walked into a different world, and I was right!

As the interview progressed I remember one of the areas of concern was how I would cope with artistically temperamental people. I replied, well as I’m a painter I thought I would fit right in.  After the interview was concluded, I was taken on a tour of the building and introduced to Ann Jenner who was the Ballet School Director at the time. We had another conversation about artistic temperament and I was beginning to realise this was a major theme. From there it was a tour of the Drama School and a conversation with Joan Harris, the Director, and again the discussion of the artistic mind continued.

A few days later I received a phone call asking me to attend a second interview. This time with John Cargher, the Managing Director. When I was ushered into his inner sanctum, John Cargher was sitting at his desk. He was a tall man with a Daliesque appearance. I took the seat opposite him on the other side of his desk, he then proceeded to place a metronome in front of me and set it in motion. With that the interview began but the sound of the metronome was infuriating making it hard to respond to his questions. After a few minutes of this sonic torture I reached out and stopped the metronome. Mr Cargher stood, put out his hand, and welcomed me to the position and the National Theatre. And so my journey had begun.
Julie-anne Armstrong-Roper