ABSTRACT
Despite artistic success, the RSC under Trevor Nunn and Terry Hands entered the 1980s, when the chill wind of monetarism was gathering speed, technically insolvent and haviing to borrow at increasingly high interest rates. The annual rise in the Arts Council grant was less than the company’s deficit and yet, ironically, the company paid the government in VAT and National Insurance more than its annual grant. Fortunately, it negotiated a good deal with the City for its occupancy of the Barbican, which was set for 1982. Nunn decided the new theatre, designed to RSC specifications and boasting supposedly the most advanced technical facilities available, should have productions to match the ambition of the building. He believed, following a visit to the US, that the technical accomplishment and standards of production were higher on Broadway than in London and introduced in 1981 a policy of enhancing physical presentation as a means of changing that situation and keeping the RSC’s big stage work popular.
