Adrian Noble (artistic director) asked
me to return to the Royal Shakespeare Company and I was close to agreeing to
live in Stratford-upon-Avon again. But I had been away from home too much of
late and so I accepted Peter Hall's counter invitation to act for the first
time with the National Theatre on the south bank of the river Thames, two
miles from my home in London.
Royal National Theatre
South Bank, London
The NT is the only British Theatre founded by an act of Parliament,
following a 130 year-long campaign for an institution to match the great European theatre
companies which predate it. When Denys Lasdun's design was completed in 1976, its three
theatres, Lyttelton (proscenium), Cottesloe (adaptable studio) and Olivier (open stage)
were named after the NT's first chairman Oliver Lyttelton, the chairman of the South Bank Board Lord Cottesloe, and artistic director Laurence Olivier.
By then, Peter Hall had replaced Laurence Olivier and guided
the NT a little north from its temporary home at the Old Vic for the lavish
complex of workshops, rehearsal rooms and offices at the south side of
Waterloo Bridge. The policy of playing in repertoire continued. |
Sir Peter Hall and Lord Olivier on the terrace of the National Theatre
In 1984, the NT was funded mainly by the Arts Council of
Great Britain's government grant, the late Greater London Council and the
proceeds from tickets, bookshop and catering. Some would say that the NT's
modestly paid employees also made their contribution. Throughout this time
my salary, made up from a basic fee plus extra for each performance, never
topped 500 pounds sterling.
After three productions, Peter Hall's invitation to head a group of
actors within the NT repertoire re-established the partnership with Edward Petherbridge
which had initiated the Actors' Company. — Ian McKellen, October 1999
Ian McKellen, and Edward Pethebridge, 1980s
|
