Shakespeare in the Theatre Glen Byam Shaw and the Shakespeare Memorial Theatre

Glen Byam Shaw was a pivotal but overlooked figure in the development of Shakespearean performance in 20th century Britain. This book serves as the first full analysis of Shaw’s work as Director of the Shakespeare Memorial Theatre across the 1950s as he laid the groundwork for what became the Royal Shakespeare Company. Drawing on interviews with Shaw’s contemporaries and material from Shaw’s own notebooks, it offers an in-depth analysis of Shaw’s time in Stratford through the lens of his productions. Where Shaw’s contemporaries have been extensively studied (Michael Redgrave, Peggy Ashcroft, Laurence Olivier, Vivien Leigh, Peter Hall, Peter Brook et al), the innately self-deprecating Shaw has managed to avoid close examination. Thus a key figure, and era, in Shakespeare performance history has been left in the shadows. This book sheds light on that transformative time for the theatre in Stratford and Shaw’s role in transforming it. In doing so it presents a revisionist history of the Royal Shakespeare Company, locating in Shaw''s work as director of the theatre the origins of many of its principles, practices and approaches later claimed by Peter Hall as his own ''foundational'' innovations for the RSC.

Shaw’s unique production practices and approaches, captured in the notebooks he kept on every play he directed, allow us to read his thoughts in his own words. Drawing on these notebooks, which have never been transcribed or published, this book gives us an unparalleled insight into the actual practices of a director as he’s working, in a way never before explored or examined.