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Chapter 1 - Liveness, Documentation, and the RSC’s Dreams, 1954–1977

from Part I - Photographing Performers

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  05 December 2019

Sally Barnden
Sally Barnden
Affiliation:
King's College London
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Summary

The largest (and constantly growing) group of photographs that could be described as ‘Shakespearean’ is that of performance stills, taken both for publicity purposes and for the archive. The opening chapter examines the relationship between performance and photograph, particularly as it relates to the ideologically charged quality of liveness. Focusing on a sample of photographs relating to productions of A Midsummer Night’s Dream by the Royal Shakespeare Company and its predecessor, the Shakespeare Memorial Theatre Company, I discuss photographs by Angus McBean, Gordon Goode, David Farrell, and Anthony Crickmay. I argue that the reinvention of the Stratford company as the RSC coincided with a sea change in photographic techniques which privileged ‘liveness’ at the expense of immaculate composition.

Keywords

performancetheatrelivenessrecordingphotojournalism
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Chapter
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Still Shakespeare and the Photography of Performance , pp. 21 - 66
Publisher: Cambridge University Press
Print publication year: 2019

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