A huge task awaits them. Badly hit by Covid, the metropolitan bias of British culture and the marginalization of Shakespeare, the RSC has recently lost some of its former prestige: a company that was radical and essential in the 1960s has begun to show, despite its best efforts Gregory Doran, an institution in need of redefinition. So what are the immediate tasks facing Evans and Harvey? First and foremost is restoring a sense of excitement to Shakespeare’s repertoire. This means attracting the best actors, directors and designers to Stratford: easy to say, but it would be great to see, say, Benedict Cumberbatch or Tom Hiddleston, Saoirse Ronan or Florence Pugh grace the Stratford stage, to not to mention new directors like Rebecca Frecknall or Josh Seymour rising to Shakespeare’s challenge. I would also urge young directors to avoid the deadly repetition – which Doran has achieved, to his credit – of the same box office bankers (Hamlet, Romeo and Juliet, A Midsummer Night’s Dream) season after season. Above all, I would hope to see a return to the quick, witty and intelligent discourse on verse that was Peter Hall’s founding principle when he founded the RSC in 1960. But there is more to the RSC than Shakespeare, and two things need to happen immediately. One is the reopening of Kyknos to expose us to the richness of the classical repertoire. The other is the realization that the RSC’s reputation originally came from the interplay between Shakespearean and modern drama: one of the highlights of the 60s was seeing a troupe of actors steeped in Shakespeare apply their skills to The Homecoming by Harold Pinter. My final point would be that while education and community projects are important, they are subordinate to the main task, which is working on the main stages of richness and texture. Evans at the Sheffield Crucible and Chichester and Harvey at Theatr Clwyd have shown they have a sense of adventure: now they must bring that same sense of calculated risk to Avon.
