IDENTIFYING theatres from architects’ drawings of their interiors is tricky to say the least.

In the case of our main image, the superimposed mythical two-legged lizard makes things a little easier.

Anatomy of a Theatre was a promotional booklet published by the Wyvern Arts Trust, probably in 1974 or 1975.

It was intended to give readers, who would have included potential advertisers and sponsors, a guided tour of the building and its small army of personnel.

The theatre was designed by Casson Conder and Partners; the great architect Sir Hugh Casson’s previous work included supervising the building design at the 1951 Festival of Britain and designing the elephant and rhino house at London Zoo.

“In earlier days,” the booklet says, “entertainment was provided at the railway-owned Mechanics Institute, the Regent Concert Hall or the Methodist Central Hall, and part of the Mechanics survives today as the Playhouse whilst the future of the Methodist Central Hall is undetermined.

“Swindon - now the acknowledged growth centre of the South West - lost the fifty-seven year old Empire Theatre in 1955 and for some time there was no professional theatre at all in the town.”

The former Methodist Central Hall would be wrecked by fire in 1977, while being used as a storage facility by a charity.

The booklet goes on to take readers through the routine of a modern theatre opened only three or four years earlier:

“The theatre day begins early in the morning when the premises are opened up by the stage door keeper, and the cleaners arrive not more than nine and a half hours after the final patrons leave the building the night before.

“The Wyvern is a big building to keep spick and span, and our ladies do a marvellous job. This doesn’t only entail the public areas but bars, dressing rooms and offices, etc.

“The arrival of the cleaners is followed shortly afterward by other staff and the whole place is soon buzzing with activity.”

Other personnel whose roles were namechecked included managers, set designers, the costume department, ushers, box office staff, scenery painters, lighting experts, sound operators, bar staff and the cloakroom team.

The description concludes: “The last job in the Wyvern day is to secure the premises having made sure that everybody has left.

“The auditorium is empty, the lights have been dimmed, the costumes hung up in the dressing room and the last empty glass collected in the Wyvern Club.”