Royal Court Theatre

Royal Court Theatre, London.

1. In Lower George Street, Chelsea. A badly adapted Non-conformist chapel, it opened as the New Chelsea in 1870 and had no success at all, even when it changed its name to the Belgravia, until after reconstruction and redecoration it opened as the Royal Court in 1871 with Randall's Thumb by W. S. Gilbert, who provided further successes with The Wedding March and The Happy Land (both 1873). In the latter he burlesqued contemporary politicians so mercilessly that the Lord Chamberlain intervened, and the actors' make-up had to be altered. In 1875 Hare took over with a good company led by the Kendals, and produced a number of successful plays. He was followed in 1879 by Wilson Barrett, and with him as her leading man Modjeska made her first appearance in London a year later. In 1885 a company which included Marion Terry, Mrs John Wood, and Brandon Thomas inaugurated a successful series of farces by Pinero, beginning with The Magistrate and followed by The Schoolmistress (1886) and Dandy Dick (1887). The theatre finally closed in 1887 to make way for street improvements and was completely demolished.

2. On the east side of Sloane Square. This theatre was built to replace the above, and had a three-tier auditorium with a seating capacity of 642. It opened in 1888 with Grundy's Mamma!, and was for a time less successful than the old theatre, in spite of the popularity of Pinero's new farce The Cabinet Minister (1890). His record-breaking Trelawny of the ‘Wells’ (1898) first brought the Royal Court back into the limelight, its next outstanding success being Charles Hannon's A Cigarette-Maker's Romance (1901) starring Martin-Harvey. In 1904 J. E. Vedrenne and Harley Granville-Barker took over the theatre and produced a remarkable series of plays, both new and old, which ranged from Shakespeare to Shaw, Galsworthy, and Barker himself. After Barker and Vedrenne had moved to the Savoy, Somerset Maugham's Lady Frederick (1907) filled the house to capacity; but then its fortunes declined until after the First World War, when J. B. Fagan took over, one of his first productions being the British première of Shaw's Heartbreak House in 1921. In 1924 Barry Jackson brought his Birmingham Repertory Theatre Company to the Court, opening with the five parts of Shaw's Back to Methuselah, followed by Eden Phillpotts's popular comedy The Farmer's Wife. In 1928 Jackson returned with controversial productions of Macbeth and The Taming of the Shrew, both in modern dress, and in 1932, after three seasons of Shaw's plays by the Macdona Players, the theatre became a cinema. It was badly damaged in 1940, but after extensive renovation it reopened as a theatre in 1952, the only productions of note being Frank Baker's Miss Hargreaves, starring Margaret Rutherford, the revue Airs on a Shoestring (1954), and Brecht's The Threepenny Opera (1956). In April 1956 it was taken over by the English Stage Company under George Devine. A policy of presenting new playwrights was justified by the success of John Osborne's Look Back in Anger, followed in 1958 by Arnold Wesker's Chicken Soup with Barley and in the following year the remaining plays of the trilogy, Roots and I'm Talking about Jerusalem. In 1957 came Osborne's The Entertainer, with Laurence Olivier, and in 1959 Serjeant Musgrave's Dance by John Arden, who, like Osborne and Wesker, remained closely associated with this theatre. Before the building closed in 1964 for reconstruction it had seen a number of important productions, including N. F. Simpson's One-Way Pendulum (1959) and Ionesco's Rhinoceros (1960). After the reopening came two plays by Osborne, Inadmissible Evidence (1964) and A Patriot for Me (1965). Following the death of Devine, William Gaskill took over, 1965–72. Under him David Storey's first play The Restoration of Arnold Middleton was seen in 1967, followed by Osborne's Time Remembered and The Hotel in Amsterdam (both 1968). Christopher Hampton was resident dramatist, 1968–70. In 1969 the theatre celebrated the end of stage censorship by producing three plays by Edward Bond, and in the same year Storey's In Celebration and The Contractor were well received. An outstanding success was also scored by his Home, which, with John Gielgud and Ralph Richardson, went on eventually to New York. Gielgud was seen again in Charles Wood's Veterans (1972). Howard Barker's Stripwell (1975) received a major production, and David Hare's Teeth ‘n’ Smiles (also 1975) and Mary O'Malley's Once a Catholic (1977) both transferred to Wyndham's, the latter with enormous success. Notable later productions included Martin Sherman's Bent (1979) with Ian McKellen and Hamlet (1980) directed by Richard Eyre. The 1980s, though financial constraints caused a severe diminution of activity, produced such notable works as Michael Hastings's Tom and Viv (1984), David Mamet's Edmond (1985), Larry Kramer's The Normal Heart and Alan Bennett's Kafka's Dick (both 1986), and Timberlake Wertenbaker's Our Country's Good (1988).

The 1980s was also the decade of the prolific English dramatist Caryl Churchill (1938– ), though she began writing radio plays in the 1960s and her first full-length play Owners was produced at the Royal Court in 1972 (NY, 1973). Many of her plays, which cover socialist and feminist themes, have been produced there, including Light Shining in Buckinghamshire (1976), set during the English Civil War (one of several composed by Collective Creation), and Cloud Nine (1979; NY, 1981), which contrasts sexual attitudes under Victorian colonialism and in 1979. Among her works staged in the 1980s were Top Girls (1982; NY, 1982), which featured a dinner party of female historical characters, the actresses who played them returning as modern women; and Fen (1983; NY, 1983), set on an East Anglian farm. Serious Money (1987; NY, 1987), a satire on the City, had a long run in the West End.

In 1969 the Royal Court added to its amenities the Theatre Upstairs, an adaptable theatre housed in a former rehearsal room and intended for experimental and low-budget works. Its productions have included several of Sam Shepard's plays. The theatre also runs a Young People's Theatre School for young playwrights, who it is hoped will contribute to the theatre's reputation as the ‘National Theatre of New Writing’.