Shakespeare at Stratford-upon-Avon: Summer and Winter, 2002-2003

The Royal Shakespeare Company's Stratford Shakespeare productions in 2002-2003, which may prove to have been the final flourishes of "Project Fleet," were effectively a series of distinct seasons and companies. Plurality reigned. In the main house Antony and Cleopatra opened on 23 April and was joined on 9 May by Much Ado About Nothing. They played in repertory until 13 July, before decamping to the West End; three productions transplanted from the Roundhouse in London replaced them, running from 31 July to 2 November; and two productions that opened in the Swan in the autumn departed on tour at the New Year. The first main-house shows, Much Ado About Nothing and Antony and Cleopatra, shared a company, except for the two pairs of principals. Similarly, the plays from the Roundhouse were performed by a single company, but some leading actors appeared in one play only, and The Winter's Tale changed its Leontes between London and Stratford.

In addition to these, the summer season in the Swan offered four plays (Eastward Ho!, The Island Princess, The Malcontent, and The Roman Actor) by coevals of Shakespeare and one (Edward III) for which he was probably partly responsible. They were played by an ensemble under overall supervision of Gregory Doran, who himself directed one of the plays (The Island Princess). Rehearsal time and production budgets were limited, and we had the chance to see a unified company playing across an unusual and exciting repertoire that corresponded exactly to the repertoire and working methods envisaged when the Swan first opened. Coming as it did at the height of the controversy and speculation concerning the RSC's artistic direction and management, ¹ the so-called "Jacobethan" season seemed something of a rebuke to the then-reigning powers. Voices within and without the company questioned the wisdom of taking two Shakespeare productions to an expensive West End theater (the Haymarket) during the summer months at a time of tourist-trade depression. Others warned that it would be costly to fit up the Roundhouse, a once-illustrious fringe venue in Chalk Farm, so as to comply with modern standards of health, safety, and convenience—let alone the directors' technical requirements. Moving productions originally staged in the round into the Stratford main house would be neither easy nor cheap. It was also suggested that Chalk Farm, being one tube stop beyond Camden Town (if not quite seven leagues beyond man's thought), was no longer on the beaten path of theatrical tourism. Whatever one thought of the Barbican, and however badly the RSC's management felt it had served them, that theater was by now a familiar and established destination. Until the very end of the season, there was no plan to take the Swan plays anywhere else. After their considerable critical success in Stratford, pressure for a transfer to London grew, and eventually they were given a new lease of life on Shaftesbury Avenue.

At the end of the summer season the RSC's "Academy"—a troupe of young actors who had been working with Declan Donnellan—showed the results of its labors in a stimulating King Lear in the Swan. The autumn brought yet another RSC company, this time with The Merry Wives of Windsor and Coriolanus. These two productions were fully cross-cast, Greg Hicks giving his two Caiuses (Martius and the Doctor), Richard Cordery pairing the bon viveurs Menenius Agrippa and Falstaff, and Alison Fiske playing Volumnia and Mistress Quickly.

The first two plays in the Stratford season were cross-cast in the supporting roles but did not share the same principals: Harriet Walter (Beatrice) and Nicholas Le Prevost (Benedick) appeared only in Much Ado About Nothing, and Stuart Wilson and Sinead Cusack played only Antony and Cleopatra. Of the two productions, Doran's Much Ado was the more successful. A permanent (and very solid-looking) set showed the exterior of Leonato's villa stretching diagonally across and...