Stratford on Avon -The Royal Shakespeare Company
Charles Flower, David Garrick, Peter Hall, Trevor Nunn
Jun 6, 2007
The Royal Shakespeare Company: In the beginning...
In the past the citizens of Stratford had not given much thought to their illustrious native son and it certainly did not occur to them to honour him in any way; they even allowed the bicentenary of his birth, in 1764, to pass almost unnoticed. It was a small matter of raising funds to build a new town hall that got them thinking there might be some advantage for them in all the fuss that people were beginning to make about the bard.
They condescended to commission a bust of Shakespeare to adorn a niche in the new town hall, but only if they could find someone else to pay for it. David Garrick, the leading actor of the day as well as being rich, was suggested as the perfect candidate. He accepted but he had something bigger in mind than a simple statue - an elaborate celebration in honour of Shakespeare - the Shakespeare Jubilee.
The Royal Shakespeare Company: Fireworks but none of his plays
It was an extravagant affair, with firework displays, processions, huge public breakfasts and dinners and a final grand costume ball. The Jubliee included everything, in fact, except the ingredient which was its raison d’etre. There was not one single Shakespeare play performed.
From that Jubilee emerged the long chain of events that culminated in the building of a theatre at Stratford; from which evolved the company now known as the Royal Shakespeare Company, one of the greatest theatre groups in the world.
The Royal Shakespeare Company: The first permanent theatre
It took another hundred years after Garrick’s Jubilee for a permanent theatre in Stratford, for the performance of Shakespeare’s plays. The Shakespeare Memorial Theatre was built in 1879 by a local brewer named Charles Flower. He was determined that the theatre should be built - even if he had to pay for everything himself, which he almost ended up doing.
The snobby London newspapers were outraged that Shakespeare’s theatre should be anywhere but in the capital - portraying the potential Stratford audience as a bunch of yokels. However, The Shakespeare Memorial Theatre survived their attacks and staged an annual festival of Shakespeare’s plays and its resident, although seasonal, company became known as the Shakespeare Memorial Company. In 1925 the company was granted a royal charter and eventually was renamed the Royal Shakespeare Theatre Thanks to the efforts of Charles Flower the precursor to the Royal Shakespeare Company was born.
But this was not to happen for another thirty five years, during which time various directors contributed to the renovation and revitalizing of the Stratford theatre and to the move to a temporary London home in the Aldwych Theatre.
The Royal Shakespeare Company: The expansion of the company
In 1960 director Peter Hall decided the word ‘memorial’ sounded a bit old-fashioned and the company was renamed the Royal Shakespeare Company and was divided into two units, to play in both Stratford and London.
Over the next ten years or so other directors took over the running of the RSC and each left their individual mark. Trevor Nunn took over from Peter Hall in 1968 and expanded the company with the establishment of two studio venues: The Other Place in Stratford in 1974 and the Donmar Warehouse in London in 1977. The Stratford branch expanded in 1986 with the opening of the Swan Theatre.
The Royal Shakespeare Company: A new Globe Theatre
Four hundred years after a group of actors, including Shakespeare himself, built their own theatre on the banks of the Thames, another Globe Theatre has taken its place close to the original location.
If Shakespeare were able to see the Royal Shakespeare Company as it is today he might agree that age cannot wither nor custom stale the infinite variety of its efforts to keep his work alive, vital and fresh.
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