Modern theatre: 20th-century Shakespeare

Frank Benson as Shylock

Frank Benson was an actor-manager who's touring company and acting school were important influences on contemporary theatre. Not the least of his contributions is that out of the week long summer Shakespeare Festivals which he presented at Stratford-upon-Avon grew the permanent Shakespeare company that we now know as the RSC. His ideal was 'to train a company, every member of which would be an essential part of a homogeneous whole, consecrated to the practice of the dramatic arts and especially to the representation of the plays of Shakespeare'.

Benson made his debut 1882, under Henry Irving, but formed a company of his own the very next year. His wife Constance, whom he married in 1888, acted in his company and played leading parts with him. From the outset of his career, Benson devoted himself largely to the production of Shakespeare's plays. From 1888 he organised 26 of the annual Stratford-upon-Avon Shakespeare festivals. He founded an acting school in 1901 and was knighted in Drury Lane Theatre in 1916, during the Shakespeare Tercentenary performance of 'Julius Caesar'. George V did the honours using a 'property' sword.

Actor from the F R Benson Company

In 1875, Charles Edward Flower, a local brewer, launched an international campaign to build a theatre in the town of Shakespeare's birth. He donated a two-acre site on the banks of the Avon for the purpose.

With an initial season of eight days, the Shakespeare Memorial Theatre opened in 1879 with a performance of Much Ado About Nothing. From 1888 actor-manager F R Benson presented an annual Shakespeare Festival, which, by 1910, had extended into a month long summer season. Frank Benson had acted at the Lyceum under Irving and was able to attract star visitors like Ellen Terry and Herbert Beerbohm Tree to guest with his company, who otherwise spent the year touring.

This young actor may well have been selected as much for his sporting ability as his acting experience. Benson emphasised physical fitness as an important part of actor training, and auditions for the company apparently often involved finding out where the hopeful applicant might fit in to the Benson Hockey Eleven, or whether he was a batsman or bowler.

Memorial Theatre on fire

Stratford-upon-Avon is famous the world over as the birthplace of William Shakespeare. In 1879 William Frederick Unsworth built the first Shakespeare Memorial Theatre on the banks of the Avon. It was a large Gothic building, after designs by W F Cusworth, including a theatre wing, a library, and a museum wing, linked by a galleried bridge. In this picture you can also see its distinctive central tower.

Disaster struck on March 6th, 1926 when the theatre was almost completely destroyed by fire, leaving only a shell. Festival productions went ahead in a local cinema. A worldwide fundraising campaign was launched as well as an architectural competition and in 1932 the new building, designed by Elisabeth Scott, was opened by the Prince of Wales. Scott incorporated the remaining shell as a conference centre and rehearsal rooms, but in 1986 it was rebuilt as a theatre by Michael Reardon. It reopened as the Swan Theatre, a smaller house to complement the main theatre.

Constance Benson as Portia in The Merchant of Venice

In 1886 Frank Benson married Gertrude Constance Featherstonhaugh and, as Constance Benson, she would play opposite him in most of the company productions from then on. They partnered each other as nearly all the major Shakespearean couples. There was certainly an added frisson for the audience in seeing a husband and wife team play together. The fascinated gossip about Henry Irving and Ellen Terry shows that Victorian audiences were just as curious about the offstage relationships of their stars as we are today.

Constance is pictured here in The Merchant of Venice. On this occasion, the couple weren't playing precisely opposite one another. That would have required Frank to take on the somewhat thankless role of Bassanio. Instead, he preferred the show-stealing Shylock, which did of course give them one lengthy and crucial scene together: the court scene where, disguised as a male lawyer, gets the better of Shylock with his bloodthirsty contract for a pound of Antonio the Merchant's flesh.

Murray Carrington as Oberon

Murray Carrington was a stalwart of the Benson company for eight years from his debut with them in 1906. He played over a hundred parts during that time, and returned occasionally even after 1914. He is pictured here as Oberon, against the curved wall of the old Memorial Theatre (a wall which remained after the fire and today forms part of the Swan Theatre).

In the decades either side of 1900, Oberon was often played by a woman. Carrington's large dark eyes and surprisingly thin legs, about which the company used to tease him, make for an otherworldly, ethereal, fragile Fairy King. In 1914 Carrington's name was being mentioned as possible leader of a breakaway company, but plans were suspended owing to the outbreak of World War I.

Alan Bates and Frances de la Tour in Antony and Cleopatra

Alan Bates and Frances de la Tour appeared in the RSC's production of Antony and Cleopatra, Shakespeare's poetic tragedy of lust and lost empires. At 65 and 54 respectively, Bates and de la Tour admitted they brought a more mature reading of the partnership to the production. One of their strengths lay towards the end of the play, in portraying the feeling of the world slipping through their fingers into the hands of Rome. The Times review found the reading very moving: 'De la Tour catches Cleopatra's volatile exhibitionism, displaying affection, caustic command and self-mockery in what sometimes seems like a single moment, but it is vulnerability that finally defines her', while Bates also gave the audience 'smouldering embers rather than fire. Even his jealous rages and furious disappointments have an elegiac feel. The charisma and magnanimity are still there, along with a sensitivity and reflectiveness missing in almost every Antony'.

Yolanda Sonnabend's design mixed its styles and influences: 'the Book of the Dead, the haute couture of John Galliano, leather bikers' jackets for the Romans'.

Stephen Dillane as Vanya

Not much happens in Chekhov's Uncle Vanya. By the end, all that has really happened is that Vanya and his niece, Sonya, have come face to face with the waste and desolation of their infinitely sad lives. All the 'Chekhovian' elements are there: the idle conversation, the absorbing portrait of the humdrum routine of daily life, the characters caught in a limbo of indecision.

Stephen Dillane played the role of Vanya in the 1998 RSC/Young Vic co-production, directed by Katie Mitchell. The Sunday Times thought the actors in this 'superlative' production 'not only understand the feelings of people in pain, their indignation, their bad temper, their flashes of black self-pity: they also understand the precise sources of pain', and so avoided a common trap with Chekhov of a 'generalised fog of melancholy'. The Financial Times praised 'The marvellous Stephen Dillane ... who is the best Uncle Vanya I have ever seen onstage ... an actor who can convey distress, depression, pain, even mounting hysteria, with often just a thread of voice, and without moving'.

Poster for All's Well That Ends Well

This art nouveau inspired poster was produced purely for sale in the Royal Shakespeare Company's theatres in Stratford and at the Barbican Centre.

Trevor Nunn, the director of this production starring Peggy Ashcroft as the Countess of Roussillion, said that the poster needed to inform the public that the production was going to take place in the society of the 'Belle Epoque' and that since the play challenged the traditional social roles of men and women, the ritual and sexuality of the dance was an important visual image in the staging.

Ginni Moo-Young's design reflects John Gunter's arching white-pillared, glass-roofed set which became the Countess de Rossillion's conservatory where she took tea, a gymnasium and ballroom at court and the Florence railway station round which battle rages. Trevor Nunn added: 'RSC posters must be informative, decorative and evocative and as souvenirs they must capture the essence of the production they advertise, but have little or nothing to do with selling.'

Nigel Hawthorne as King Lear

The RSC engaged in its first international collaboration, working with the highly respected Japanese theatre director Yukio Ninagawa on a production of King Lear. Ninagawa had previously directed Japanese versions of 'Macbeth' and 'The Tempest' in the UK, and was committed to staging all 37 of Shakespeare's dramas over 13 years at his base, the Saitama Arts Theatre, north of Tokyo. The first three, Romeo and Juliet, Twelfth Night and Richard III, were played in Japanese to a Japanese audience.

King Lear was the first to be performed in English, first in Japan, and then at the Barbican in London. For this marriage of East and West, the quintessentially English Nigel Hawthorne took the part of the king, whose betrayal by his daughters drives him to madness. From day one, rehearsals were more akin to a traditional dress rehearsal: it was assumed that the actors knew their lines, and the purpose was to refine physical interaction and their understanding of the set - inspired by Japanese Noh and Kabuki theatre, with the Rising Sun as a backdrop.

Rupert Penry-Jones as Alcibiades

Timon of Athens is one of Shakespeare's most rarely performed plays. This production was the RSC's first since 1965. Michael Pennington took the central role of Timon, a generous Athenian who finds that, when he himself is in financial trouble, those who have benefited from his generosity in the past simply turn their backs. It is a tale of greed, fair-weather friends and disillusionment with humanity.

The Daily Mail thought Pennington 'simply magnificent: vocally supreme, acidly temperamental, and brimming with revealing, flawed self-centredness'.

Pictured is Rupert Penry-Jones in the smaller, yet crucial role of Alcibiades, the young general who repays Timon's kindness to him by leading an army against the Athenians who have banished them both. He too garnered excellent reviews, including this from the online review Curtain Up: 'the discovery of the year must be Rupert Penry-Jones who has youth and looks on his side as the play's true hero. I hope he will play Hamlet soon'.

Brixton Stories by Biyi Bandele

Biyi Bandele's play about a man who has started to drink after the death of his wife in childbirth is based on his book The Street.

Brixton Stories appeared as one of the RSC's 'Other Eden' series of plays. These were commissioned from contemporary writers as responses to Shakespeare's dramas. Through the genre of Magical Realism, Bandele created a world of dreams in Brixton where Ossie Jones, a lawyer, and his daughter Nehushta live. We see them on Ossie's last day alive. Reality becomes mixed with fantasy as Ossie, slipping into a coma, is wrongfully arrested and locked up in prison with a murderer. Suggesting, perhaps, Shakespeare's King Lear, the injustice Ossie faces in his dreamworld is too close to the real world for comfort.

Poster for A Midsummer Night's Dream

Poster for A Midsummer Night's Dream by William Shakespeare, Royal Shakespeare Company, Aldwych Theatre, London, England, 1977. Museum no. S.468-1995

Ring Around the Moon

This picture is from the first London production of Ring Around the Moon at the old Globe Theatre in 1950, starring Paul Scofield playing a dual role as twin brothers and Claire Bloom as a poor ballet dancer, Isabelle. This is an unusually romantic fairy tale for this generally pessimistic dramatist.

The production was also notable for the star names involved in its production. The set and costumes were designed by Oliver Messel and it was produced by Peter Brook, while Margaret Rutherford, who later went on to play in the film versions of Miss Marple, played the old wheelchair-bound aristocrat. Mona Washbourne played Isabelle's mother.

The critics regarded this as a lightweight play, closer to a masque or variety entertainment, since the plot was paper-thin and conventionally romantic, and the songs gave the whole production the air of an Ivor Novello production rather than a French comedy.

No Man's Land by Harold Pinter

Harold Pinter always avoided giving 'explanations' of his often ambiguous plays. As he said, 'I can sum up none of my plays. I can describe none of them, except to say: That is what happened. That is what they said. That is what they did'. The action of No Man's Land is simple: a shabby stranger is invited into a Hampstead writer's home. From there, Pinter examines the themes which recur throughout his work the fallibility of memory, the co-existence in one man of brute strength and sensitivity, the ultimate unknowability of women, the invasion of territory.

After its 1975 Old Vic premiere, it was for some time one of Pinter's least revived plays, although regarded as one of his masterpieces. This may have been due to the daunting thought of following in the footsteps of the amazing first cast which included two theatrical giants. John Gielgud (left) as Spooner, the beer-stained invader, was 'superbly sly, mellifluous and ingratiating', and Ralph Richardson played the writer, Hirst, with 'precisely that other-worldliness that makes this actor such a magician' (reviews from The Guardian).

Waiting for Godot, 1997

Waiting for Godot, the play in which 'nothing happens - twice' is now recognised as a major influence on post war drama. 'It was about two tramps waiting nowhere in particular for someone who never shows up.' The two tramps (Vladimir and Estragon) are waiting for someone called 'Godot' although they are vague as to why, who he is, and whether he will come. While waiting, they must somehow fill in the time. Author Samuel Beckett refused to explain the piece, but the wait can be seen as a metaphor for life, and our need to give it meaning and purpose.

When Peter Hall had staged the British premiere in 1955, the play's avoidance of a clear linear plot, or any attempt at realism, caused consternation among the critics. While a few recognised its brilliance, many saw no literary merit in the form of the piece. 'His work … holds the stage most wittily, but is it a play?' said one. Audiences were also divided, and 'Godot' became a hot topic in the media. Now the play is recognised as probably the single most influential work of the 20th century, which inspired future writers such as Harold Pinter, Joe Orton, Edward Bond and Tom Stoppard to name a few.

Ring Around the Moon by Jean Anouilh

Isabelle, a poor ballet dancer, is hired by Hugo to appear at a great ball in an aristocratic country house to end his twin brother Frederic's infatuation with another woman. Here, Claire Bloom is Isabelle while Paul Scofield played the dual role as the twin brothers. In true Cinderella style, Isabelle triumphs over her patron and succeeds in making her appearance a success and also having both men fall in love with her.

The production was also notable for other star names, since the set and costumes were designed by Oliver Messel and it was produced by Peter Brook. Margaret Rutherford, who later went on to play in the film versions of Agatha Christie's Miss Marple stories, played the old wheelchair-bound aristocrat and Mona Washbourne played Isabelle's mother.

The critics regarded this as a lightweight play, closer to masque or variety. The plot was paper-thin and conventionally romantic while the songs gave the whole production the air of an Ivor Novello production rather than a French comedy.

Waiting for Godot, 2005

Cast: James Laurenson (Vladimir), Alan Dobie (Estragon), Richard Dormer (Lucky) and Terence Rigby (Pozzo)

Waiting for Godot, the play in which 'nothing happens - twice' is now recognised as a major influence on post war drama. 'It was about two tramps waiting nowhere in particular for someone who never shows up.' The two tramps (Vladimir and Estragon) are waiting for someone called 'Godot' although they are vague as to why, who he is, and whether he will come. While waiting, they must somehow fill in the time. Author Samuel Beckett refused to explain the piece, but the wait can be seen as a metaphor for life, and our need to give it meaning and purpose.

When Peter Hall had staged the British premiere in 1955, the play's avoidance of a clear linear plot, or any attempt at realism, caused consternation among the critics. While a few recognised its brilliance, many saw no literary merit in the form of the piece. 'His work … holds the stage most wittily, but is it a play?' said one. Audiences were also divided, and 'Godot' became a hot topic in the media. Now the play is recognised as probably the single most influential work of the 20th century, which inspired future writers such as Harold Pinter, Joe Orton, Edward Bond and Tom Stoppard to name a few.

La Calisto, 1970

This photograph shows Janet Baker and James Bowman in Peter Hall's 1970 Glyndebourne production of Francesco Cavalli's La Calisto (literally 'a little satyr').

First produced in 1561, it has a typical Venetian opera plot of the period, where the gods fall in love with humans and come to earth in disguise with all the resulting confusions and identity crises.

Peter Hall and his designer John Bury wanted to make the Baroque stage live again, but using modern methods and materials. They caught what one critic described as 'the spirit of baroque wonder and extravagance' involving real stage machines and cunning transformations, worked by the age old system of men, ropes and counterweights. Raymond Leppard's version of Cavalli's score and Hall's enchanting production helped build new audiences for the lesser known early operas and thus widen the standard operatic repertory.