Hostname: page-component-586b7cd67f-dsjbd Total loading time: 0 Render date: 2024-11-23T18:38:05.915Z Has data issue: false hasContentIssue false
  • English
  • Français

Meager Lead and Joyous Consequences: RSC Triumphs Among Shakespeare's Minor Plays

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  21 October 2010

William P. Shaw
William P. Shaw
Affiliation:
Professor of English atLe Moyne College
Get access Rights & Permissions [Opens in a new window]

Extract

Bassanio's words, as he chooses the correct casket to win Portia as his wife, might offer an insight to the production history of the Royal Shakespeare Company:

An impressive number of the RSC's greatest theatrical triumphs have been stagings of Shakespeare's “meager lead,” his lesser or minor plays. To seek the common element in these surprising coups, I will examine four productions of such plays, one from each of the conventional generic categores, and spanning four decades in the history of the RSC: Brook's Love's Labor's Lost (1946) and Titus Andronicus (1955), Hall's and Barton's Troilus and Cressida (1960), Hands' Henry VI, Parts I, II, and III (1977).

Type
Articles
Information
Theatre Survey , Volume 27 , Issue 1-2 , November 1986 , pp. 37 - 67
Copyright
Copyright © American Society for Theatre Research 1986

Access options

Get access to the full version of this content by using one of the access options below. (Log in options will check for institutional or personal access. Content may require purchase if you do not have access.)

References

NOTES

1 The Merchant of Venice, III. ii. 104–07, in The Complete Works of Shakespeare, ed. David Bevington, 3rd ed. (Glenview, Ill.: Scott, Foresman and Co., 1980), pp. 276–77. Although “Royal Shakespeare Company” was not an official title until 1960, it is used as a title of convenience in this paper (as it was used for Sally Beauman's book) and because the directors mentioned worked through the date when the title changed and thus helped shape the RSC.

2 Manchester Guardian, 29 April 1946. Notices from this and the other productions I will be discussing (unless otherwise stated) come from the scrapbook collections of press cuttings housed in the Shakespeare Birthplace Trust Library, where the fuller bibliographical information of volume number, page number, etc. are not indicated for each review.

3 “The Theatre,” The Tatler, 8 May 1946.

4 Beauman, Sally, The Royal Shakespeare Company: A History of Ten Decades (Oxford: Oxford Univ. Press, 1982), p. 176.Google Scholar

5 Birmingham Post, 27 April 1946; Manchester Guardian, 29 April 1946.

6 See Berry's, RalphOn Directing Shakespeare: Interviews with Contemporary Directors (New York: Barnes and Noble, 1977), p. 117.Google Scholar

7 Brook, Peter, The Empty Space (Hammondsworth: Pelican Books, 1972), p. 76.Google Scholar

8 Birmingham Evening Despatch, 27 April 1946.

9 Manchester Guardian, 29 April 1946.

10 Birmingham Evening Despatch, 27 April 1946; The Times, 29 April 1946.

11 Beckerman, Bernard, “Explorations in Shakespeare's Drama,” Shakespeare Quarterly, 29 (Spring, 1978), 137.CrossRefGoogle Scholar

12 The Times, 29 April 1946.

13 Birmingham Post, 27 April 1946.

14 “The Theatre,” The Tatler, 8 May 1946.

15 The Times, 29 April 1946; Birmingham Post, 27 April 1946; Birmingham Evening Despatch, 27 April 1946; Beauman, p. 176.

16 Manchester Guardian, 29 April 1946.

17 Yorkshire Post. 15 August 1955.

18 Levin, Bernard, Truth, 26 August 1955Google Scholar; Walker, Alex, Birmingham Gazette, 17 August 1955.Google Scholar

19 Tarran, Geoffrey, Morning Advertiser, 25 August 1955Google Scholar; and Punch, 24 August 1955.

20 Sketch (London), 24 August 1955; Tarran, , Morning Advertiser, 25 August 1955Google Scholar; and Trewin, J. C., Illustrated London News, 27 August 1955.Google Scholar

21 Sisson, Rosemary Anne, Stratford-upon-Avon Herald, 19 August 1955.Google Scholar

22 Peter Brook, program note, TA (1955), Stratford Memorial Theatre. As quoted in Beauman, p. 224.

23 Findlater, Richard. Tribune. 26 August 1955.Google Scholar

24 Levin, , Truth, 26 August 1955.Google Scholar

25 Waugh, Evelyn, “Titus With a Grain of Salt,” Spectator, 2 September 1955.Google Scholar

26 David, Richard, “Drams of Eale,” Shakespeare Survey. 10 (1957), 126.Google Scholar

27 David, Richard, Shakespeare in the Theatre (Cambridge: Cambridge Univ. Press, 1978), p. 230.Google Scholar

28 Tarran, , Morning Advertiser, 25 August 1955Google Scholar; Evening Standard (London), 17 August 1955.

29 Walker, , Birmingham Gazette, 17 August 1955.Google Scholar

30 The Times, 27 August 1955.

31 Olivier, Laurence, Confessions of an Actor (New York: Simon and Schuster, 1982), pp. 202–03.Google Scholar

32 Birmingham Post, 17 August 1955.

33 Observer, 21 August 1955.

34 Hobson, Harold, The Sunday Times, 21 August 1955.Google Scholar

35 Confessions of an Actor, p. 203. This comment seems particularly insensitive since Miss Leigh had been showing signs of mental illness, and Sir Laurence was trying to have a psychiatrist treat her with electric shock therapy (p. 202).

36 Hope-Wallace, Philip, Manchester Guardian Weekly, 18 August 1955.Google Scholar

37 Sisson; Evening Standard; Derek Granger, Financial Times; 17 August 1955; Hope-Wallace; Oxford Mail, 17 August 1955; and Punch, 24 August 1955.

38 See Krutch, Joseph Wood, Nation. 134 (1932), 734.Google Scholar As quoted in “Shakespeare's Troilus on the Modern Stage,” Troilus and Cressida, The Variorum Shakespeare, ed. H. N. Hillebrand and T. W. Baldwin (Philadelphia: J.B. Lippincott Co., 1953), p. 509. See also Lawrence's, W. W.Shakespeare's Problem Comedies (Baltimore: Penguin Shakespeare Library, 1969), pp. 144–46.Google Scholar

39 See, e.g., Whitaker's, Virgil “Philosophy and Romance in Shakespeare's ‘Problem’ Comedies,’ in The Seventeenth Century, ed. Jones, Richard F. (Stanford: Stanford Univ. Press, 1951), p. 344Google Scholar, where he states that “philosophic discussions are out of all proportion to the actions to which they lead,” and Bethell's, S. L.Shakespeare and the Popular Tradition (North Carolina: Duke Univ. Press, 1944), p. 119Google Scholar, where he calls the play “an excuse for thought rather than the embodiment of thought.”

40 John Dryden, Preface to Troilus and Cressida, as quoted in “Later Stage History: Dryden,” The Variorum Shakespeare, pp. 489–90.

41 The Times, 3 June 1907, p. 10. As quoted in “Shakespeare's Troilus on the Modern Stage: England,” The Various Shakespeare, p. 505.

42 Seltzer, Daniel, “Introduction to Troilus and Cressida,” Troilus and Cressida (New York: New American Library, 1963), p. xxviii.Google Scholar

43 A simple review of the modern theatre history provided in The Variorum Shakespeare, pp. 505–18, gives ample evidence to support this statement.

44 Dent, Alan, News Chronicle (London), 27 July 1960.Google Scholar See also “Kiss Me Cressida: Tyrone Guthrie's Trick Production of Troilus and Cressida,” a review in Spectator, 13 April 1956.

45 McGlinchee, Clair, “Stratford, Connecticut Shakespeare Festival, 1961,” Shakespeare Quarterly, 12 (Autumn, 1961), 421–22.CrossRefGoogle Scholar

46 Comtois, M. E., “New York Shakespeare Festival, Lincoln Center, 1973–74,” Shakespeare Quarterly, 25 (Autumn, 1974), 406.CrossRefGoogle Scholar

47 The Sunday Times, 31 July 1960.

48 Brien, Alan, Spectator, 29 July 1960.Google Scholar

49 Ellis-Fermor, Una, The Frontiers of Drama, 3rd ed. (London: Methuen, 1948), p. 72.Google Scholar

50 Punch (London), 10 August 1960.

51 Sprague, A. C. and Trewin, J. C., Shakespeare's Plays Today (Columbia: Univ. of South Carolina Press, 1970), p. 114Google Scholar; Speaight, Robert, Shakespeare on the Stage (Boston: Little, Brown and Co., 1973), p. 281Google Scholar; and Brien.

52 Speaight, Robert, “The 1960 Season at Stratford-upon-Avon,” Shakespeare Quarterly, 11 (Autumn, 1960), 451CrossRefGoogle Scholar; Gardner, Edmund, Stratford-upon-Avon Herald, 29 July 1960Google Scholar; and The Guardian (Manchester), 28 July 1960.

53 Speaight, , Shakespeare on the Stage, p. 281.Google Scholar

54 Gardner; Punch. 10 August 1960; and The Sunday Times. 31 July 1960.

55 Gardner; The Times, 27 July I960; and Oxford Times, 29 July 1960.

56 Worsley, T. C., Financial Times. 27 July 1960.Google Scholar

57 Trewin, J. C.. Birmingham Post, 27 July 1960Google Scholar; Punch, 10 August 1960; and Brien.

58 Levin, Bernard, Daily Express (London), 27 July 1960Google Scholar; Gardner; Worsley; Punch, 10 August I960; and Speaight, , Shakespeare on the Stage, p. 281.Google Scholar

59 The Sunday Times, 21 July 1960.

60 The Guardian (Manchester), 28 July 1960.

61 Brown, John Russell, “Three Directors: A Review of Recent Productions,” Shakespeare Survey, 14 (1960), 133Google Scholar; Daily Telegraph, 27 July 1960 [?].

62 Trewin, J. C., “Tall Troy's Down,” The Illustrated London News, 6 August 1960, p. 240.Google Scholar

63 Beauman, p. 339 and n. 13, p. 369.

64 Whitman, Walt, “A Noiseless Patient Spider,” Leaves of Grass, ed. Allen, Gay Wilson (New York: New American Library, 1958), pp. 347–48.Google Scholar

65 Young, B. A., Financial Times, 17 July 1977Google Scholar; Rees, Malcolm, South Wales Argus. 17 July 1977Google Scholar; and Warren, Roger, “Comedies and Histories at Two Stratfords, 1977” Shakespeare Survey. 31 (1978), 148.Google Scholar

66 Trewin, J. C., “Shakespeare in Brimin,” Shakespeare Quarterly. 29 (Spring, 1978), 213.CrossRefGoogle Scholar

67 Marcus, Frank, Sunday Telegraph, 17 July 1977.Google Scholar

68 Swander, Homer, “The Rediscovery of Henry VI,” Shakespeare Quarterly. 29 (Spring, 1978), 161.CrossRefGoogle Scholar

69 Nightingale, Benedict, The New Statesman, 22 July 1977Google Scholar; McKee, Victoria, Sunday Mercury (Birmingham), 17 July 1977.Google Scholar

70 McKee; and Marcus.

71 Levin, Bernard, The Sunday Times, 17 July 1977Google Scholar; Young; and Trewin, p. 214.

72 Price, Farleigh, The Citizen (Gloucester), 16 July 1977.Google Scholar