The National Theatre Story

Daniel Rosenthal

• Publisher: Oberon Books
• Year: 2013
• ISBN:
  9781849439435
• Edition: 1
• Topic: Social Sciences
• Subtopic: Social Science Biographies
• Index: Social Sciences

Winner of the STR Theatre Book Prize 2014 The National Theatre Story is filled with artistic, financial and political battles, onstage triumphs – and the occasional disaster. This definitive account takes readers from the National Theatre's 19th-century origins, through false dawns in the early 1900s, and on to its hard-fought inauguration in 1963. At the Old Vic, Laurence Olivier was for ten years the inspirational Director of the NT Company, before Peter Hall took over and, in 1976, led the move into the National's concrete home on the South Bank. Altogether, the NT has staged more than 800 productions, premiering some of the 20th and 21st centuries' most popular and controversial plays, including Amadeus, The Romans in Britain, Closer, The History Boys, War Horse and One Man, Two Guvnors. Certain to be essential reading for theatre lovers and students, The National Theatre Story is packed with photographs and draws on Daniel Rosenthal's unprecedented access to the National Theatre's own archives, unpublished correspondence and more than 100 new interviews with directors, playwrights and actors, including Olivier's successors as Director (Peter Hall, Richard Eyre, Trevor Nunn and Nicholas Hytner), and other great figures from the last 50 years of British and American drama, among them Edward Albee, Alan Bennett, Judi Dench, Michael Gambon, David Hare, Tony Kushner, Ian McKellen, Diana Rigg, Maggie Smith, Peter Shaffer, Stephen Sondheim and Tom Stoppard.

Notes

Key to Principal Sources

IwA – Interview with the Author.

Unless otherwise indicated, all National Theatre Board papers and correspondence cited here are held at the National Theatre Archive [www.nationaltheatre.org.uk/archive].

NTB – National Theatre Board Minutes.

SBB – South Bank Theatre Board Minutes.

F&GP / F&A – National Theatre Finance & General Purposes Committee; redesignated Finance & Audit Committee, November 1995.

BL – Laurence Olivier Papers, British Library.

DMA – Sir Derek Mitchell Archive [held at NT Archive].

CHF – Sir Christopher Hogg Files [privately held].

DLA – Sir Denys Lasdun Archive, V&A, London.

Published Works (full details in Bibliography)

Addenbrooke – The Royal Shakespeare Company: The Peter Hall Years by David Addenbrooke.

Beauman – The Royal Shakespeare Company by Sally Beauman.

Calder – Committees and Concrete by Dr Barnabas Calder.

Callow – The National (1997) by Simon Callow.

Chambers – Inside the RSC by Colin Chambers.

Coleman – Laurence Olivier by Terry Coleman.

Confessions – Confessions of an Actor by Laurence Olivier.

Cook – The National Theatre (1976) by Judith Cook.

Diaries – The Diaries of Kenneth Tynan Edited by John Lahr.

Elsom – The History of the National Theatre by John Elsom and Nicholas Tomalin.

Exhibition – Making an Exhibition of Myself by Peter Hall.

Fay – Power Play by Stephen Fay.

Gilbert – Opera for Everyone by Susie Gilbert.

Hussey – The Life of Sir Edwin Lutyens by Christopher Hussey.

Landstone – Off-Stage by Charles Landstone.

Letters – The Letters of Kenneth Tynan Edited by John Lahr.

Lewis – The National: A Dream Made Concrete by Peter Lewis.

Minihan – The Nationalisation of Culture by Janet Minihan.

NS – National Service: Diary of a Decade by Richard Eyre.

PHD – Peter Hall’s Diaries.

Purdom – Harley Granville Barker by C. B. Purdom.

Quilley – Happiness Indeed by Denis Quilley.

Roberts – The Royal Court and the English Stage by Philip Roberts.

Slim Chances – Slim Chances and Unscheduled Appearances by Edward Petherbridge.

Scheme – Scheme & Estimates for a National Theatre (1904) by Harley Granville Barker and William...

Table of contents

• Cover
• Half-title Page
• Title Page
• Copyright
• Contents
• Dedication
• Author’s Note
• List of Illustrations
• Prologue
• 1848–1963 False Dawns
• 1963–74 Director of the NT Laurence Olivier
• 1974–88 Director of the NT Peter Hall
• 1988–97 Director of the NT Richard Eyre
• 1997–2003 Director of the NT Trevor Nunn
• 2003–13 Director of the NT Nicholas Hytner
• Epilogue
• National Theatre Productions 1963–2013
• National Theatre Filmography
• Bibliography
• Index
• Plate Section
• Notes