The ravages executed on Shakespeare by Restoration and eighteenth-century adaptors have become a source of academic speculation and amused commentary. But Peter Hall, the most distinguished and articulate begetter of contemporary adaptation, would, one is convinced, dissociate himself from Dryden and Tate. His position is simply that producers should ‘try to express Shakespeare’s intentions in terms that modern audiences can understand’. It is important to emphasize the distance in attitude between Hall and the early adaptors. The sharpest critic, unnerved by what seems extraneous sensationalism in a Hall production, must often accept that it is possible to detect a reason which goes beyond a mere desire for effect in what is presented. Hall gives the impression, in many of his statements, of having a potent, grave and reverent conception of the value of the plays, and a wish to relate their profundity to the realities of the contemporary world. Whereas Sir Tyrone Guthrie seems nearer in theory to the Restoration mode, and demonstrates it in practice by his ruthless cuts and interpolations, Hall is, by contrast, cautious. He has stated that ‘any cutting which alters or affects the theme of the play must be immoral’ and that ‘cuts should be made within speeches’.