So maybe the reverse question should be asked. Is it worth using the drum revolve at all? Yes, says Willmott, even though she had previously likened the experience to childbirth – she’d only come back to do it again because three years had passed and she’d forgotten how painful it was. Still, ‘none of us went into the theatre to do ordinary’ – and the extraordinary becomes more possible with this amazing piece of equipment at your disposal. In Saint Joan, a separate platform was placed under the mechanism so the stage could be raised and lowered raked at a steep pitch, instead of flat; sometimes, a doughnut ring is fitted on the outer edges so the stage can revolve in two directions at once. ‘In Oedipus,’ says Willmott, it didn’t go up and down at all but slowly circulated once: Ralph Fiennes inched slowly round like the sun crossing the sky.’ And ultimately, it isn’t important whether the audience appreciates the mechanics, as long as they enjoy the results. Laurence Olivier, founding director of the NT, who gave his name to this theatre without ever getting the chance to preside over it (he retired, reluctantly, before the move), was asked in the early 1960s what his policy was for the fledgling National. His answer was simple, and still applies: ‘To make the audience applaud.’