Atkins, Robert

Atkins, Robert (1886–1972), English actor and director, whose career was devoted mainly to Shakespeare. He made his first appearance at Her (then His) Majesty's Theatre in 1906 in Henry IV, Part I, and in 1915 joined the Old Vic company, where he returned in 1920 after war service. He remained there until 1925, directing and acting in a number of plays, including Ibsen's Peer Gynt (1922) and the rarely seen Titus Andronicus and Troilus and Cressida (both 1923). He then toured with his own company. In 1936 he founded the Bankside Players, which he directed in Shakespeare at the Ring and the Open Air Theatre, of which he was Director of Productions from its opening until 1960, and manager, 1938–60. He was also Director of the Shakespeare Memorial Theatre, 1944–5. During 1940, at the height of the bombing of London, he continued to present Shakespeare at the Vaudeville Theatre. He was an excellent actor, among his best parts being Sir Toby Belch in Twelfth Night, Touchstone in As You Like It, Caliban in The Tempest, Bottom in A Midsummer Night's Dream, Sir Giles Overreach in Massinger's A New Way to Pay Old Debts, and James Telfer in Pinero's Trelawny of the ‘Wells’.