Shakespeare Memorial Theatre

Shakespeare Memorial Theatre, Stratford-upon-Avon, Warwickshire. This theatre, devoted to the production of plays by Shakespeare, stood on a riverside site in his birthplace, donated by Charles Edward Flower, member of a local family of brewers. A bright-red brick building in a pseudo-Gothic style, it opened in 1879 on 23 Apr. ( Shakespeare's birthday), and attracted a good deal of adverse criticism on account of its gabled and turreted exterior, bare interior, and inadequate stage. It was, however, destined to house many fine productions with outstanding actors during the annual festival of Shakespeare's plays, which from 1886 to 1919 were directed mainly by Frank Benson, and afterwards by W. Bridges-Adams, and even to gain the affection of some of those who visited it regularly, until in 1926 it was destroyed by fire, leaving the library and picture gallery, added in 1883, still standing, though badly damaged. The company moved to a local converted cinema while plans were put in hand for a new theatre, on the same site but with an extension into the adjoining Bancroft gardens. The shell of the old theatre was converted into a conference hall, now used for rehearsals. Much of the money needed to build a new theatre came from the USA, and the moving spirit of the appeal was again a Flower—Sir Archibald.

The new building, designed by Elizabeth Scott, grandniece of the architect Sir Gilbert Scott, opened on 23 Apr. 1932. It was purely functional both inside and out, with high windowless walls, a fan-shaped auditorium seating about 1,500, and a wide stage. Again it caused widespread controversy; just as the first theatre had been dubbed ‘a wedding cake’, so the second was dismissed as ‘a factory’ or ‘a tomb’. The actors suffered from cramped conditions backstage and from the distancing effect on their performances of the large orchestra pit.

Two years later Bridges-Adams retired, after extending the annual season from three or four weeks to five months and inviting Komisarjevsky to direct several plays, including a controversial production of Macbeth with aluminium screens and vaguely modern uniforms. He returned under Bridges-Adams's successor Ben Iden Payne, who introduced dramatists other than Shakespeare into the programme—Jonson for the tercentenary of his death in 1937, Goldsmith in 1940, Sheridan in 1941. This policy continued until 1946, since when Shakespeare has reigned virtually supreme. A full programme was maintained during the Second World War, Payne being succeeded by Milton Rosmer in 1943 and Robert Atkins in 1944; under the latter the forestage was carried out over the orchestra pit, with a welcome gain in contact between actors and audience. In 1945 Barry Jackson took over and initiated a number of reforms, including the spacing out of first nights over the whole season instead of crowding them all into the first fortnight and the appointment of a different director for each play instead of a resident director for the season. Improvements were made both in the auditorium and backstage, including the enlargement and refitting of the workshops. Jackson also invited promising youngsters to join the company, including Paul Scofield and Peter Brook, and in 1948 Robert Helpmann appeared as King John, Shylock, and Hamlet. In the autumn of that year Anthony Quayle took over as director, and under him a number of leading players, including Peggy Ashcroft, John Gielgud, Diana Wynyard, and Michael Redgrave, appeared in a series of brilliant productions. The front curtain was removed, thus further integrating stage and auditorium. Glen Byam Shaw succeeded Quayle in 1956, after being co-director for some years. Overseas touring, which began with tentative visits to North America and Australia before 1939, increased after the Second World War, and there were visits to Moscow in 1955 and Leningrad in 1958.

The formation of the RSC in 1961, with Peter Hall as director, began a new era, with the company appearing not only at Stratford, where the theatre was renamed the Royal Shakespeare Theatre, but also in London, at the Aldwych Theatre and, from 1982, the Barbican Theatre.