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Published: 7th April, 2011
by TOM FOOT

IT was, for a one-man show about a double bass, the integral prop.

So actor Christopher Hunter understandably felt some severe first-night nerves jangling after his giant stringed instrument was stolen just two days before his opening performance.

An opportunist thief is believed to have taken the £500 double bass, black case and bow, from New End Theatre while the Royal Shakespeare Company actor unloaded his van at around 11am on Monday. Police are appealing for witnesses.

Mr Hunter said: “I just put it down for 10 minutes and when I came back it had disappeared.”

The Double Bass, by the German writer Patrick Süskind, is the story of a musician in crisis preparing for an opening night of Wagner’s Rheingold – proving life imitates art. But, in true thespian style, Mr Hunter was determined the show would go on. He said: “I was not about to be upstaged by my wooden musical instrument. 

“I went to Foote’s in Golden Square, but they wanted £700. Then a shop in King’s Cross who wanted £95 a day. In the end, I got one loaned for just £10 for three weeks. It’s worth about £3,500 and I’m not letting it out of my sight.”

Mr Hunter helped to build the New End ­Theatre while working as a labourer and living in a bedsit in Willoughby Road in the 1970s.

He is now an experienced actor, who has played leading roles for the Royal Shakespeare Company and worked with director Sam Mendes. But preparations for the three-week run of Double Bass, his first solo performance, have not been going smoothly – as well as the double bass loss, Mr Hunter’s car was stolen last week. 

Producer Hilary Townley said: “I just can’t believe the brazen au­dacity of it. I guess that’s the trouble with Hampstead bohemia. People see a double bass and say, ‘yes please’. 

“The play is about how when you play an instrument like the double bass it takes over your life. That’s exactly what has happened to us.”

Anyone with information is urged to contact Hampstead Police station.