Peter Hall (1930–2017) is one of the most influential directors of Shakespeare's plays in the modern age. Under his direction, the Royal Shakespeare Company and the National Theatre rediscovered Shakespeare as a writer who could comment incisively on the modern world. Productions such as Coriolanus, The Wars of the Roses and Hamlet established his reputation as a director able to bring Shakespeare to the heart of contemporary politics. He later cemented his reputation with epic productions of Coriolanus and Antony and Cleopatra at the National. With the Peter Hall Company, Hall continued to work intensively on Shakespeare, directing plays in the UK and America.
Reviewing Hall's work in its cultural and creative context, this study explores his approach to directing and rehearsal. This is the first book to analyse all of Hall's professional Shakespeare productions in a historical context, from the Suez crisis to the 9/11 attacks and beyond.
Peter Holland holds the McMeel Family Chair in Shakespeare Studies in the Department of Film, Television and Theatre and is Associate Dean for the Arts at the University of Notre Dame. He was formerly Director of the Shakespeare Institute, Stratford-upon-Avon and is editor of Shakespeare Survey and co-general editor of the Oxford Shakespeare Topics series.
Peter Holland is McMeel Family Chair in Shakespeare Studies at the University of Notre Dame, USA.
Peter Holland is the McMeel Family Chair in Shakespeare Studies and the Associate Dean for the Arts at the University of Notre Dame, USA.
Stephen Purcell is Assistant Professor in English at the University of Warwick, UK.
Miranda Fay Thomas is Assistant Professor in Theatre and Performance at Trinity College Dublin, Ireland. They are the author of
Shakespeare's Body Language: Shaming Gestures and Gender Politics on the Renaissance Stage (the Arden Shakespeare, 2019) and editor of
The Tempest (Arden Performance Editions, 2021).
Vanessa I. Corredera is Professor of English at Baylor University, USA. Her publications include
Reanimating Shakespeare's Othello in Post-Racial America (2022), articles in
Literature Compass,
The Journal of American Studies,
Borrowers and Lenders, and
Shakespeare Quarterly, and essays in several edited collections. She is also co-editor, alongside L. Monique Pittman and Geoffrey Way, of
Shakespeare and Cultural Appropriation (2023), as well as a General Editor of
Borrowers and Lenders: The Journal of Shakespeare and Appropriation.
