The Royal Shakespeare Company grew from a bold change in how Shakespeare was presented: not as the focus of a brief annual festival, but as the centre of a permanent company making theatre throughout the year. Founded in 1961 under director Peter Hall, the RSC inherited a Stratford-upon-Avon stage with a history reaching back to the Shakespeare Memorial Theatre of 1879. It has since built a repertoire that includes Shakespeare, other classical writers and new work, with its productions reaching audiences in Stratford, elsewhere in Britain and abroad.
From memorial theatre to permanent company
The RSC’s institutional story begins with the Shakespeare Memorial Theatre, the result of local brewer Charles Edward Flower’s campaign to establish a theatre in Shakespeare’s birthplace. The building opened on 23 April 1879 with Much Ado About Nothing. A fire destroyed it in 1926, and the company’s Shakespeare festivals moved temporarily to a converted local cinema. A replacement theatre, designed by Elisabeth Scott, opened in 1932.
Peter Hall became director-designate of the Memorial Theatre in 1959 and made the formation of a permanent company a central aim. In March 1961, the Shakespeare Memorial Theatre became the Royal Shakespeare Theatre and the company was formally established as the Royal Shakespeare Company. Hall’s plan was ambitious: a year-round operation with a permanent company, a London base and work that included contemporary writing as well as Shakespeare. The shift changed the scale of the undertaking, from a seasonal festival to an institution with a continuing repertoire.
The company’s early artistic leadership helped establish that broader outlook. John Barton was appointed associate director in 1960; Michel Saint-Denis, Peter Brook and Clifford Williams joined as resident directors in 1962. The repertoire expanded to include modern plays and classics beyond Shakespeare. A London base followed at the Aldwych Theatre, where Stratford productions could transfer to the capital.
Stages for different kinds of theatre
The RSC’s identity has been shaped by the spaces in which it works. In 1974, director Buzz Goodbody helped establish The Other Place, a small studio theatre in Stratford. Its more intimate scale made room for a different relationship between actors and audience. In 1976, Trevor Nunn staged Macbeth there with a minimalist set; Ian McKellen played Macbeth and Judi Dench Lady Macbeth. The production transferred to London, first at the Donmar Warehouse and then at the Young Vic.
In 1986 the company opened the Swan Theatre, created within the shell of the 1879 Memorial Theatre. Its thrust stage and intimate auditorium were intended for Shakespeare’s contemporaries, European writers and occasional Shakespeare productions. These smaller stages complemented the Royal Shakespeare Theatre and gave the company ways to present work that did not depend on the scale or conventions of a large auditorium.
The theatres in Stratford later underwent a major transformation. The Royal Shakespeare and Swan theatres closed in 2007 for redevelopment, with the temporary Courtyard Theatre accommodating productions during the work. The transformed theatres reopened in November 2010. The Other Place returned as a 200-seat studio theatre in 2016. The RSC’s Stratford home is therefore not a single historic building but a group of performance and rehearsal spaces that have changed as the company’s needs have changed.
Shakespeare, new work and notable productions
Shakespeare remains central to the company’s programme, but the RSC’s history is not confined to his plays. Its productions have included works by writers such as Harold Pinter and Tom Stoppard, alongside plays by Shakespeare’s contemporaries and other classical authors. The company has also developed new writing and adaptations, making the repertoire a conversation between established texts and work written or reworked for the stage.
Among the productions associated with its history are Peter Brook’s King Lear in 1962, starring Paul Scofield, and Peter Brook’s A Midsummer Night’s Dream in 1970. Nunn’s Macbeth became a landmark of the company’s studio work; Trevor Nunn and John Caird’s stage adaptation of The Life and Adventures of Nicholas Nickleby opened in 1980. Later productions included Gregory Doran’s 2008 Hamlet, with David Tennant and Patrick Stewart, and Matilda the Musical, which began at the Courtyard Theatre in 2010 before transferring to the West End.
These examples also show how the RSC’s work can move between forms and venues. Nicholas Nickleby brought a long novel to the stage; Matilda grew from a production in Stratford into a musical with a life beyond its first theatre. The company has produced Shakespeare in full-scale repertory, in studio settings and through projects designed for audiences beyond its home stages. The point is not that every production follows one house style, but that the organisation has sustained a range of theatrical approaches under one name.
Touring, learning and reaching audiences
Stratford is the RSC’s home, but not the limit of its activity. Its productions have played in London and on tours in Britain and internationally. In 2012, the World Shakespeare Festival brought together UK and international arts organisations around the idea of Shakespeare as a writer for the world. In 2013, the RSC announced Live from Stratford-upon-Avon, a project to broadcast productions to cinemas and stream them into schools; it began with Richard II, starring David Tennant.
Education has been another strand of the company’s work. In 2008, the RSC launched its Stand up for Shakespeare campaign, setting out the principles “Do It on Your Feet”, “See It Live” and “Start It Earlier”. New education spaces opened on Waterside in 2010. These initiatives place performance at the heart of learning: students can encounter the plays as language to speak and interpret, not only as texts to study on the page.
The company’s international work has included touring productions and partnerships with arts organisations abroad. Its 2016 King & Country tour took productions of Henry IV and Henry V to Shanghai, Beijing and Hong Kong. Such activity carries RSC productions beyond their Stratford setting, while events and collaborations create ways for audiences and artists in different places to encounter Shakespeare and theatre together.
Why the Royal Shakespeare Company deserves a place in British Legacy
The RSC deserves a place in British Legacy because its history connects a specific place, a continuing theatrical tradition and a lasting body of work. Stratford’s Shakespeare Memorial Theatre opened in 1879; the Royal Shakespeare Company was established there in 1961 to turn Shakespeare performance into a year-round undertaking. The institution did not simply inherit a building or commemorate a writer. Under Peter Hall, it developed a permanent company, widened its repertoire and established a London outlet, creating a structure in which Shakespeare could be performed alongside modern and classical work.
Its contribution is visible in the range of ways it has brought theatre to audiences. Studio stages such as The Other Place made room for intimate productions; the Swan offered a dedicated home for work beyond the standard Shakespeare repertoire. Major productions such as Macbeth, Nicholas Nickleby and Matilda demonstrate how the company has interpreted plays and adapted other writing for performance. Education programmes, school initiatives, cinema broadcasts and international touring extend that work beyond the Stratford auditorium. The British connection is therefore more than the company’s name or its location: it lies in a British theatrical institution’s sustained effort to perform Shakespeare, support other writing and make live theatre available to successive generations of audiences.
Sources
Royal Shakespeare Company — Wikipedia revision 1376596557
Adapted in part from Royal Shakespeare Company by Wikipedia contributors, under CC BY-SA 4.0. Text has been edited and combined with the existing article; this adapted text is shared under the same licence. Contributor history.