‘A Fairly Average Sort of Place’: Shakespeare in Northampton, 1927–1987

Summary

The Globe, Covent Garden, Drury Lane, the Lyceum, Her Majesty’s, the Old Vic, the Shakespeare Memorial Theatre, the National Theatre – these are the theatres which resonate through the annals of theatre history, the places where actors – and latterly directors – have sought the stamp of contemporary acclaim and a passport to immortality. But for Shakespeare’s plays there has always been ‘a world elsewhere’: the stock companies, the London ‘minor’ theatres, the touring circuit and the repertory theatres. Quantitatively these alternative places have outstripped the patent and national theatres in their output of Shakespeare; qualitatively they have achieved standards at least high enough to sustain Shakespeare in their repertoires, but, with rare exceptions, their work has been overlooked. No doubt this is partly because of the relatively scant records available – no lengthy reviews in the national press, few memoirs by or biographies of the performers, little memorabilia beyond programmes, rarely a promptbook or stage design, only occasional glimpses through the photographer’s lens. And yet the endeavours of these Shakespearians are worthy of attention; indeed to echo Linda Loman, in Arthur Miller’s Death of a Salesman, ‘attention must be paid’.

In no sphere is this truer than the repertory movement, which from Miss Horniman's pioneering work at the Gaiety Theatre, Manchester (1908), transformed the nature of the nation's theatre outside London and remains its foundation to this day. Shakespeare's plays were always fundamental to repertory, but, Barry Jackson at the Birmingham Rep apart, attention has not been paid to their achievements.