Have you seen our ‘digs’ yet? Am sure you’ll like them” asked Peter D’Souza, part of the Mind Walking cast that I had just met after getting off a plane from Gatwick Airport. I looked around puzzled, was I supposed to bring a shovel? I haven’t even begun work, and I already had no idea what was going on.
These were people I was going to be working with on tour in the United Kingdom and bring over to India in mid November. I desperately wanted to impress them.
Director John Binnie, reading my expression, took me aside and explained that ‘Digs’ is the term used for accommodation for theatre artists.
The term comes from the Army. Soldiers used to “dig” their foxholes for the night. Therefore the term “digs” is now associated with temporary accommodation. Today, it is used most popularly to describe temporary housing that is given to touring theatre folk in the UK. Ideally digs are like our own paying-guest system. You are put up in someone’s house.
Typically the land lords are theatre lovers who enjoy being around performers, have a spare bedroom and appreciate the company.
Digs have become an important segment of the theatre landscape in the United Kingdom.
In a small town like Malvern, for example, there are no hotels. So if the town wants theatre groups to come and perform, they need to open up their homes.
Thanks to digs, Malvern is today a theatre heartbeat that attracts people from all over the county to see the plays that are staged there.
Zita, at whose home I am being put up, is a lovely lady who over 20 years ago, used to cook at the Royal Court Theatre. Her home in Brighton has two stories. And the top floor is the one she gives out to theatre boarders. She started taking in lodgers when she heard the horror stories that actor friends had to suffer. The hardships that black actors encountered in finding accommodation often meant that they would lose out vital work assignments.
Theatre digs, like Zita’s aptly named Brighton House, are often beautifully maintained. And most of the time, far more comfortable than living in a hotel. For the traveller, you get a sense of the people in this town. Some dig owners would even set out late night dinners for the actors and troupe members, since most restaurants are shut by the time the show comes down.
The theatre digs system is a very well organised machine. People like Zita who want to give out their homes to travelling minstrels go on a “Digs List”, something that is usually maintained by the premiere theatre in the town. In Brighton it is the Theatre Royal, since they host most of the big travelling shows that come into town. There are even “Digs Ratings”, and online bookings.
And the moment you know your show will tour to a city you can book any one of the available digs and even negotiate your price.
If someone is a regular touring performer, s/he tends to stay at the same place each time. Over time, the relationships change from landlord — tenant to deep friendship. And often Dig owners look forward to the “regulars” visiting. Zita informs me that next week two of her regulars will be dropping in.
And while she knows Peter and I have the rooms normally she gives out, she can’t turn her regulars away, so she will make up some other rooms in the house to accommodate them.
What large heartedness. Here’s a system that Indian theatre would love to implement, especially in Mumbai where hotel accommodation eats into a large chunk of festival and touring budgets.
Why stay in a hotel, when a foxhole can be so much more comfortable?