ABSTRACT
The officially titled National Theatre opened its first London season at its temporary home, the Old Vic, on 22 October 1963. The first production was Hamlet, starring Peter O'Toole and directed by Sir Laurence Olivier, its first artistic director. In the previous years, however, Peter Hall, who was appointed as artistic director of the Shakespeare Memorial Theatre in 1959. Who had rapidly established what was generally considered to be a national company, the Royal Shakespeare Company, with a permanent ensemble, two theatres. Both companies expected new theatres, the National Theatre Company on a South Bank site which eventually settled on Princess Meadow downstream from Waterloo. And the Royal Shakespeare Company on the Barbican development near St Paul's Cathedral. This attitude proved both to be the strength and weakness of the two companies. At best, when the nationals were confident of their ideals and knew where they were going, their work was exceptionally youthful and exciting.
