Shakespeare in the Theatre: Peter Hal by Stuart Hampton-Reeves, and: Shakespeare in the Theatre: Cheek by Jowl by Peter Kirwan (review)

The Shakespeare in the Theatre series was established to shine a spotlight on practitioners who have "made a significant contribution to Shakespeare production", aiming to highlight "the range of people, artistic practices and cultural phenomena that combine to make meaning in the theatre" (Bridget Escolme et al. "Series Preface" in Hampton-Reeves viii). In these two recent publications in the series Stuart Hampton-Reeves and Peter Kirwan focus attention on two prolific and highly influential exemplars: Peter Hall, and Cheek by Jowl Theatre Company founded in 1981 by Declan Donnellan and Nick Ormerod.

Hampton-Reeves adopts a chronological approach to his exploration of Hall's work, documenting every professional production of Shakespeare that Hall directed from his early work at the Shakespeare Memorial Theatre in the mid-1950s, through his tenure at the Royal Shakespeare Company and National Theatre, his work in the United States, and finally his freelance directing projects in the UK in the 2010s. It is an ambitious and highly readable survey which draws on detailed archival research to provide insights into Hall's artistic approach, documenting casting choices and examining Hall's rehearsal process, staging decisions, and use of design and costuming, as well as the reception of each production.

One of the great strengths of Hampton-Reeves's book is the way he carefully situates Hall's work within its social, political, and wider cultural context. Particularly compelling is the analysis of Hall's 1963 Wars of the Roses cycle at the Royal Shakespeare Company (57-70) and the 1984 National Theatre production of Coriolanus (111-119), both of which are presented as engaging with the political moment in inventive ways. The chronological structure adopted by Hampton-Reeves is in some ways reminiscent of a biography, tracing Hall's development as a director through his engagements with Shakespeare's work and contextualising this journey against the backdrop of a tumultuous period in British history. This approach provides the reader with a powerful sense of how Hall's work and the way it was received were shaped decisively by forces beyond the theatre.

Kirwan adopts a different methodology for his consideration of Cheek by Jowl Theatre Company taking a thematic approach and providing a series of case studies of the company's work. Through these, Kirwan examines the company's distinctive contribution to the field of staging Shakespeare, considering their process of creating work, their innovative use of bodies and space, their experiments with all-male casting, the cinematic quality of their work, the role of scenic design in their productions, and their nuanced portrayal of humanity. Kirwan draws on a rich range of sources in his exploration of the company's work, augmenting his performance analyses with archival research, interviews, and, in the case of The Winter's Tale, even rehearsal observation. This latter approach is particularly fruitful in providing privileged insights into Cheek by Jowl's process and makes a valuable contribution to the burgeoning field of rehearsal studies, though Kirwan does not engage directly with scholarship from this field.

In his acknowledgements, Kirwan admits that he "fell in love with Cheek by Jowl's work in 2004" (xiii) and occasionally it feels as though his enthusiasm hinders a full critical assessment of the company's work. For example, his analysis of certain staging choices – such as the decision to interpolate gendered violence into several productions (33-34, 60-61, 82-83) – as well as his consideration of the company's operating practices (7-9) would have benefitted from a more thorough interrogation of the politics and ethics of these choices. Nonetheless, there is much to admire in this book: it is a richly detailed account of an influential theatre company's processes and performances. Particularly valuable are the methodological innovations of...