ABSTRACT
In examining the tension between the creativity of the RSC and the company as an institution, the central terrain is the quality and meaning of the work that appears on stage, the nature of the repertoire and, broadly speaking, the worldview it may be said to express. Whether or not the company has legitimacy as a national and international institution is ultimately decided here. By any yardstick, the RSC has been an enormously protean and inventive company in this regard, reinventing and reenergising itself over four decades despite inadequate state support and providing some of the outstanding theatrical experiences of the latter part of the twentieth century.
