24 June 2013
Author: Tim Wood
Did you know that, in the 1970s, the Royal Shakespeare Company took over The Place for a few years?
The RSC, under Sir Trevor Nunn's leadership, hired the theatre to stage two seasons of plays between 1971 and 1973. They starred actors such as Patrick Stewart, Ben Kingsley, Helen Mirren, Julian Glover and David Suchet. The RSC used the venue as a smaller alternative to their theatre in Aldwych and created their own seating from raked wooden benches. They found a more permanent venue in Stratford upon Avon in 1974 and called it ‘The Other Place' in homage to The Place. And because it's a line in Hamlet.
Thanks to the following sources for some of the information in this series of blog posts:
http://calm.shakespeare.org.uk/dserve/
http://www.ucl.ac.uk/bloomsbury-project/streets/dukes_road.htm