RSC left out

They're not in it because they don't deserve to be in it. Given their size and the amount of money they got from the recovery fund their efforts have been feeble. 

The RSC have been irrelevant for years now.

Exactly.

They need someone much more exciting to take over and fast.

Top tier creatives just do not want to work there anymore.

The only RSC production that appears in my top 10 Shakespeare productions since Doran took over is Simon Godwin's Hamlet. Along with his Twelfth Night

Take a hint Gregory! A shame Simon has gone to be Artistic Director for the Shakespeare Theatre Company in Washington.

I'd have to go further down the list to find Christopher Luscombe's Love's Labour's Lost/Much Ado About Nothing and Iqbal Khan's Othello. Two other directors who were able to bring something good to the main theatre. Melly Still's Cymbeline wasn't great but still stands out to me compared to the rest.

The best Doran has done were Richard II, The Tempest (despite the dated special effects) and Troilus and Cressida. And of all the Shakespeare plays it was Troilus and Cressida in which he put some real effort and imagination into after so many years.

And I still say that pre-2013 Doran is one of my favourite Shakespeare directors. His Julius Caesar, Hamlet, Love's Labour's Lost, and Midsummer Night's Dream is some of the best Shakespeare I've seen.

Then at the bottom you have Antony and Cleopatra and Coriolanus in that disappointing Roman Season. That was when I gave up on Gregory Doran. Even if he wasn't officially in charge of the season it was clear he was calling the shots asking for some of the most bland and literal productions I've seen at the RSC. You had some very imaginative directors in that season. Heck I knew Iqbal Khan was the perfect director for Antony and Cleopatra and yet that is the worst I've seen under Doran's tenure

And I may be complaining as someone who misses the Michael Boyd years (from 2006). But I don't need Michael Boyd back, I need someone who has a vision for the RSC who can attract directors with great ideas.

And you could only find those in the Swan Theatre. I loved Wolf Hall, The Jew of Malta, The Rover, Don Quixote, and Snow in Midsummer and still remember the Arden of Faversham, The Witch of Edmonton, Dido Queen of Carthage, The Provoked Wife, Tamburlaine, Timon of Athens, Vice Versa, The Alchemist, and Volpone. Even the bad ones showed vision that weren't executed well.

The fact that during the lockdown the RSC did nothing but the odd event and some online interviews with Doran and the company's best actors of old shows a lack of imagination on Doran's part.

reading these comments-very sad but very true. RSC has ceased to be a force in our theatre with their menu of awful productions,poor directors and acting companies that are not really fit for purpose in a great classical company. Its not just Gregory-you cant let Erica Whyman off the hook who has taken Swan/TOP and programmed work that really hasn't encouraged audiences..much lecturing in fact and total alienation of RSC audiences. The view on Interactive/VR seems to suggest they are a cool lot but -let's be honest-most young people see at home much better VR and probably would like theatre to be a special and different experience not trying to badly clone their world. RSC need a complete rethink and redefining...text edits that neutralise the work,desperate attempts to woo the young and the company role repositioned as Education Company rather than leading theatre.It pains me to look at what they were and what they have become.

That's really about it....Icke has his finger on the pulse for bringing classical work to young and-dare I suggest-older audiences.Even shows like Almeida Richard 11,which was not great,brought a very immediate and compelling perspective on the play.The RSC has finished as a force and,quite frankly,to quote Priti Patel I dont see who could take over.Its simply not very appealing or respected.Goold wouldn't now,Icke is off to Europe making huge strides....there will be a safe and exemplary political appointment but no one with a track record of reimagining classical and thrilling contemporary unless you can spot someone rare out there.

They should have kept the Courtyard and left the RST as it was (with a few improvements) and then built a new studio space.

All thrust is just too limiting

I got out the transformation book and the idea of changing the RST was circling when Adrian Noble was leaving.

The idea was to have a versatile space that can change between proscenium and thrust stage.

But Michael Boyd was dead set on a thrust stage only theatre and seeing the shows under his tenure from 2006, mainly in the courtyard theatre, I can see why.

A thrust stage suited directors like him, David Farr, and Rupert Gould at the time. Watching the Histories the courtyard theatre was like a toy box of ways to stage Shakespeare for them. When they didn’t have to rely on presenting Shakespeare literally. Their shows were stylistic, symbolic and at times physical, using the whole space for actors to perform from all levels and even in the air. Even Gregory Doran, though not the most radical of Shakespeare directors was more imaginative before 2013

And the RST could have been the ultimate space for directors like them to thrive. But Gregory Doran had to take the lazy and literal approach and stage shows like they might as well be on the proscenium stage

And counting in the fact that the RSC was dead set on returning to the Barbican that the stagings have to cater for that space as well.

What annoyed me the most about the Roman season was that Blanch McIntyre’s modern setting Titus Andronicus looked so awkward on that literal classical Roman set.

I sometimes wander whether the rsc also caters to its live broadcasts, thinking that any -non-literal staging would not come across on the screen

And nearly two decades later and the bridge theatre is that versatile theatre the RST could have been and more. That theatre reminds me of the possibilities that courtyard theatre had for directors that go beyond the literal

I think things started to slide when they lost the Barbican as their London home. That’s how they managed to attract better actors/directors/designers etc...

Very few top actors want to be stuck in Stratford for months and months in rep.

Good for the RSC for getting them out there but how many will watch and how much £ will they get for them www.whatsonstage.com/stratford-upon-avon-theatre/news/rsc-to-partner-with-broadwayhd-shakespeare_53233.html

Interesting. So what happened to the link up with Marquee? Is Broadway free to view or pay on demand? I haven't used it before.



Reading the posts on the theatres at Stratford above, I heartily agree that The Bridge is in fact what should have been attained. That Dream there was great stuff and not possible at the RST or Swan. And Maggie Smith’s tour de force with the moving stage...not really an option in Stratford as the movement was so subtle. So we really must think of what the theatre is going to be in the future and take a chance. I say ‘we’ I mean impresarios and classical producers. 

There used to be that studio space next door to the Old Vic that I think they owned but they let it to the NT and the NT let Peter Gill run it and they mounted full-scale productions there with no audience allowed in at all. A monumental vanity project for Gill. Maybe once every few years a production would make it from there to the NT. Are Ballet Rambert using it as their HQ now ?

Any or all of the above may be incorrect, except the part about Peter Gill.