Shakespeare Performances in England, 1999

Summary

Deciding on a batting order for productions to be discussed in this essay always seems rather arbitrary. Their chronological order of opening would have a sort of crude logic about it, but would offer little to the earnest essayist endeavouring to create an illusion of connectedness. My inclination as tenant of this space for the last few years has been to follow a 'Comedies, Histories, Tragedies' sort of progression in the effort to 'grow to a point'. For this, the last essay in my series, I find myself with an agenda of no histories, six comedies, six tragedies (one in two productions), and two revivals of Troilus and Cressida, and for no particular reason other than the desire for a change, I begin my final year with the tragedies.

Having been the subject of special articles in the last two volumes of Survey, this year's three Shakespeare productions at the Bankside Globe now come back within the province of this essay to find their level with the rest of the year's Shakespearian theatrical endeavour - and judged against the rest, that level is not a distinguished one. With very rare exceptions, the Globe seems to be attracting disappointingly few accomplished actors to its companies; nor have any of its directors, so far at least, had anything particularly illuminating to tell us about the plays they have presented.