ABSTRACT
In 1963, Britain, having mainly been without anational theatre, found herself virtually with two. The offieially titled National Theatre opened its first London season at its temporary horne, the Old Vie, on 22 Oetober 1963. The first production was Harnlet, starring Peter OToole and direeted by Sir Laurenee 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, had rapidly established what was generally considered to be a national company, the Royal Shakespeare Company, with a permanent ensemble, two theatres (in Stratford and at the Aldwych, London) and the reputation of being the liveliest, finest company in Britain. If the National Theatre Company was the de jure national, the Royal Shakespeare Company could regard itself as being then the de facta one. Both companies expeeted new theatres, the National Theatre Company on a South Bank si te which eventually settled on Princess Meadow downstream from Waterloo, and the Royal Shakespeare Company on the Barbiean development near St Paul's Cathedral. Both companies either received or expected to receive grants to match their status, both acted as eultural emissaries abroad and as leading tourist attraetions at horne, and both drew their strength of appeal partly by calling on folk memories , the Royal Shakespeare Company from Shakespeare and Stratford, and the National from the glowing memories of the Olivier IRichardson Old Vic Company seasons in the last years of the war.
