Vancouver Pilgrimage. Orpheum Theatre.

Address: 601 Smithe St, Vancouver, BC V6B 3L4, Canada

This is just a few streets north of Vancouver Public Library. Looking at the map, I approached the Orpheum Theatre along Granville Street and found:

Definitely not what I was looking for, so I continued on, round the corner into Smithe St and found the main entrance (below). I’ll come back to that story in a minute.

Then round the corner into Seymour St I found the very interesting side entrance and the stage door.

So, having found the main entrance, which was open, I went it. There was quite a lot of activity going on, to do with the Vancouver Symphony Orchestra concert that night, with Yo Yo Ma. Having established that I was nothing to do with the orchestra, I got talking to one of the staff about the history of the building, theatres in Vancouver, the nature of performance space etc. Quite fascinating. I wish my own city had such well thought out and integrated theatrical spaces.

Then I asked if I could take some photos and was told I could. So I took some pics, clearly showing an interest in red carpets and brass railings. Wonder why?

The person I had been talking to then invited me to ‘follow me and I’ll show you somewhere more photogenic’. I followed up the steps, round the corner and …OMG…I was in the foyer where so many scenes from 2.05 were shot. I was standing almost exactly where Tiffany would stand in this shot.

And I had permission to take photos!

To my left was what I consider to be Scylla’s staircase.

The exarch’s staircase was to my right.

In front of me were the balconies where the Camarilla stood, where Jack Orsatti watched Scylla and Anacostia.

Where Tiffany was standing looks like this in real life. The railings were removed for filming and the back of the area was covered in curtains.

On some screen shots you can just make out the places where the railings have been removed from the carpet.

So, I was pretty pleased with this. There is an upper level that I didn’t get to visit.

Checking Screengrabs, online photos and rewatching 2.05 I have worked out that these staircases are from the north entrance. Scylla and Anacostia come in from the inner door of the Granville Street entrance. They go up the stairs and collect their masks. Then we see Shane cross the mezzanine and go down the stairs, where we see Scylla and Anacostia later.