Inside the Royal Shakespeare Company

This book offers a detailed critique of the Royal Shakespeare Company, exploring its history and the challenges it faces in modern British culture.

The Inside the Royal Shakespeare Company provides an in-depth exploration of one of Britain's most significant cultural institutions. It serves as both a historical critique and a narrative of the Royal Shakespeare Company's evolution over four decades, under the leadership of four different artistic directors. This book reveals the challenges faced by the company in maintaining its radical theatrical vision amidst the shifting tides of British society and culture. The author, uniquely positioned to recount this story, delves into the intricacies of the company's working methods, repertoire, and the dynamics of its people and politics.

As the narrative unfolds, readers are invited to reflect on the broader implications of the Royal Shakespeare Company's journey. The text highlights the ongoing struggle for creative expression within the arts and the societal factors that influence this struggle. With each chapter, Inside the Royal Shakespeare Company not only chronicles the past but also poses critical questions about the future of theatre in contemporary cultural life. It emphasizes the importance of sustaining artistic vision in an increasingly complex environment.

This book is essential for anyone interested in the inner workings of the theatre and the role it plays in shaping cultural identity. It offers a timely analysis of the challenges and triumphs of a bastion of high culture that now finds itself in crisis, making it a vital document for our times.