Shakespeare in the Theatre: Trevor Nunn

Trevor Nunn is one of the most significant and influential directors of modern times. This book provides the first critical overview of his work as a director, including detailed discussions of representative productions for the Royal Shakespeare Company and at the National Theatre.

The book explores Nunn's achievements as a director of Shakespeare in the wider context of debates on the cultural politics of Britain's theatrical institutions in the twentieth and twenty-first centuries. His work has been characterized by the combination of close textual analysis and inventive theatricality, and has ranged from impressive productions on the large stages of the RSC and the National Theatre to the intimacy the companies' studio spaces. Another consistent aspect of his approach has been the quest for an ideal performance space for the plays of Shakespeare and his contemporaries. The principal focus of the book is on Nunn's work as director of Shakespeare, and on the relationship between this and his directing of plays by other dramatists and in other theatrical genres. The four core chapters focus in detail on major RSC and NT productions that can be said to have challenged and changed perceptions of the plays, including The Winter's Tale (RSC 1969), the 'Roman Plays' season (RSC,1972) and All's Well That Ends Well (RSC 1982), and the studio productions of Macbeth (RSC 1976), Othello (RSC 1989) and The Merchant of Venice (NT 1999). The study draws on archive material in Stratford-upon-Avon and London, reviews and other published commentary, including that of actors who have worked with him.