Drama at the Edinburgh International Festival: history and repertoire, 1957–1966

Drama remained an important part of the Edinburgh International Festival during its second decade. Almost all performances took place at the Royal Lyceum Theatre, The Assembly Hall, and the former Gateway Theatre.

More than 15 companies appeared during the decade, of which the most prolific were the London-based Old Vic Company and English Stage Company, the Royal Shakespeare Company from Stratford-upon-Avon, and the Edinburgh Gateway Company.

List

Date Company Drama Venue Director Principal actors Notes and sources
1957 The English Stage Company Nekrassov (Jean-Paul Sartre) Royal Lyceum Theatre
[1]
1957 Henry Sherek Man of Distinction (Walter Hasenclever) Royal Lyceum Theatre
[1]
1957 Compagnie Madeleine Renaud Jean-Louis Barrault La Répétition ou l'Amour puni (Jean Anouilh) Royal Lyceum Theatre
[1]
1957 Jean-Louis Barrault Connaissance de Claudel Royal Lyceum Theatre
[1]
1957 Stephen Mitchell The Hidden King (Jonathan Griffin) The Assembly Hall
  • Christopher West
[1]
1957 Edinburgh Gateway Company The Flouers o Edinburgh (Robert McLellan) Gateway Theatre
  • James Gibson
[1]
1957 John Gielgud The Ages of Man (William Shakespeare, anthology by George Rylands) Freemasons' Hall
[1]
1958 Henry Sherek The Elder Statesman (T. S. Eliot) Royal Lyceum Theatre E. Martin Browne
[2]
1958 Ulster Theatre Group The Bonefire (Gerard McLarnon) Royal Lyceum Theatre Tyrone Guthrie
[2]
1958 New Watergate Theatre Club Long Day's Journey into Night (Eugene O'Neill) Royal Lyceum Theatre José Quintero
[2]
1958 The Old Vic Company Twelfth Night (William Shakespeare) Royal Lyceum Theatre Michael Benthall
[2]
1958 The Old Vic Company Mary Stuart (Friedrich Schiller) The Assembly Hall Peter Wood
[2]
1958 Edinburgh Gateway Company Weir of Hermiston (R. J. B. Sellar), adapted from Robert Louis Stevenson Gateway Theatre
  • Brian Carey
  • Pamela Bain, Tom Fleming, Lennox Milne, William Simpson, Frank Wylie
 [2]
1959 The Old Vic Company The Double Dealer (William Congreve) Royal Lyceum Theatre Michael Benthall
[3]
1959 Birmingham Repertory Theatre Company Gammer Gurton's Needle (1575) and Fratricide Punished Royal Lyceum Theatre Bernard Hepton [3]
1959 The English Stage Company Cock-a-Doodle Dandy (Seán O'Casey) Royal Lyceum Theatre
[3]
1959 Wharton Productions Ltd Ane Satyre of the Thrie Estaites (Sir David Lindsay) The Assembly Hall
[3]
1959 The Perth Theatre Company Breakspear in Gascony (Eric Linklater) Gateway Theatre
  • Julian Herington
  • Christopher Burgess
 [3]
1959 The Dundee Repertory Company Candida (George Bernard Shaw) Gateway Theatre
[3]
1959 The Glasgow Citizens' Theatre The Baikie Charivari (James Bridie) Gateway Theatre
  • Peter Duguid
[3]
1960 The Wallace (Sydney Goodsir Smith) The Assembly Hall
  • Peter Potter
[4]
1960 The Old Vic Company The Seagull (Anton Chekhov) Royal Lyceum Theatre
  • John Fernald
[4]
1960 La Compagnie Roger Planchon Les Trois Mousquetaires (Dumas) Royal Lyceum Theatre
[4]
1960 Lynoq Productions The Dream of Peter Mann (Bernard Kops) Royal Lyceum Theatre
[4]
1960 The Glasgow Citizens' Theatre Romulus the Great (Friedrich Dürrenmatt translated by Nell Moody) Gateway Theatre
  • Callum Mill
  • Joe Greig
 [4]
1960 Edinburgh Gateway Company Mary Stuart in Scotland (B Bjørnson translated by Elizabeth Sprigge) Gateway Theatre
  • Richard Mathews
[4]
1961 The Old Vic Company Doctor Faustus (Christopher Marlowe) The Assembly Hall
[5]
1961 The Old Vic Company King John (William Shakespeare) The Assembly Hall
  • Peter Potter
[5]
1961 The English Stage Company and Oscar Lewenstein Luther (John Osborne) Empire Theatre
[5]
1961 The Old Vic Company Sappho (Lawrence Durrell) Royal Lyceum Theatre
  • John Hale
[5]
1961 Jan de Blieck and L'Association Française d'Action Artistique Le Misanthrope (Molière) Royal Lyceum Theatre
[5]
1961 Jan de Blieck and L'Association Française d'Action Artistique Jean de la Lune (Marcel Achard) Royal Lyceum Theatre
[5]
1961 The English Stage Company August for the People (Nigel Dennis) Royal Lyceum Theatre
[5]
1961 Edinburgh Gateway Company Let Wives Tak' Tent (Robert Kemp after Molière) Gateway Theatre
[5]
1962 Royal Shakespeare Company Troilus and Cressida (William Shakespeare) Royal Lyceum Theatre
[6]
1962 Royal Shakespeare Company The Devils (John Whiting) Royal Lyceum Theatre
[6]
1962 Royal Shakespeare Company Curtmantle (Christopher Fry) Royal Lyceum Theatre
[6]
1962 Garvase Fajeon and Richard O'Donoghue The Doctor and the Devils (Dylan Thomas) The Assembly Hall
  • Callum Mill
[6]
1962 Edinburgh Gateway Company Young Auchinleck (Robert McLellan) Gateway Theatre
  • Kenneth Parrott
[6]
1963 Frith Banbury The Unshaven Cheek (Ray Lawler) Royal Lyceum Theatre
  • Frith Banbury
[7]
1963 The 59 Theatre Company When We Dead Awaken (Henrik Ibsen translated by Michael Meyer) Royal Lyceum Theatre
[7]
1963 The English Stage Company The Ceremony (Ionesco, translated by Donald Watson) Royal Lyceum Theatre
[7]
1963 Marlan Productions The Rabbit Race (Martin Walser, translated by Ronald Duncan) The Assembly Hall
[7]
1963 Chichester Festival Theatre Saint Joan (George Bernard Shaw) The Assembly Hall
[7]
1963 Edinburgh Gateway Company All in Good Faith (Roddy MacMillan) Gateway Theatre
[7]
1964 Michael White Hamp (John Wilson, based on a story by J L Hodson) Royal Lyceum Theatre
  • John Gibson
[8]
1964 Theatre Workshop Henry IV, Part 1, Henry IV, Part 2 (adapted from William Shakespeare) The Assembly Hall
[8]
1964 Bristol Old Vic Company Henry V (William Shakespeare) Royal Lyceum Theatre
[8]
1964 Bristol Old Vic Company Love's Labour's Lost (William Shakespeare) Royal Lyceum Theatre
[8]
1964 Edinburgh Gateway Company The Golden Legend of Shults (James Bridie) Gateway Theatre
[8]
1965 Haizlip and Stoiber Productions The Amen Corner (James Baldwin) Royal Lyceum Theatre
[9]
1965 Il Teatro Stabile di Genova I Due Gemelli Veneziani (Carlo Goldoni) Royal Lyceum Theatre
[9]
1965 Peter Bridge Too True to Be Good (George Bernard Shaw) Royal Lyceum Theatre
[9]
1965 Traverse Festival Productions Macbeth (William Shakespeare) Assembly Hall
  • Michael Geliot
[9]
1965 Edinburgh Gateway Company The Man from Thermopylae (Ada F. Kay) Gateway Theatre
  • Richard Matthews
[9]
1966 Royal Lyceum Theatre Company The Burdies (Adaptation by Douglas Young of the play by Aristophanes) Royal Lyceum Theatre
  • Callum Mill, Harry Walker
 [10]
1966 Piraikon Theatron Electra (Sophocles) Royal Lyceum Theatre
[10]
1966 Piraikon Theatron Medea (Euripides) Royal Lyceum Theatre
[10]
1966 Michael Codron A Present from the Past (John Hailstone) Royal Lyceum Theatre
  • Robert Chetwyn
[10]
1966 Pop Theatre The Winter's Tale (William Shakespeare) The Assembly Hall
[10]
1966 Pop Theatre The Trojan Women (English version by Ronald Duncan of the adaptation by Jean-Paul Sartre of the play by Euripides) The Assembly Hall
[10]
1966 The Moscow Puppets Gateway Theatre
[10]
1966 Traverse Theatre Club Lorca (Bettina Jonič) Gateway Theatre
  • Ande Anderson
  • Tom Beckley and Bettina Jonič
 [10]
1966 Polish Mime Theatre, Wrocław Jeselka, The Labyrinth, A woman's Gown, Marathon, The Dream, The Post Office Church Hill Theatre
[10]
1966 John Ridley Productions Ltd The Wrong Side of the Moon (Nicholas Stuart Gray) Gateway Theatre
[10]

See also

References

  1. ^ a b c d e f g Edinburgh International Festival 1957 Souvenir Programme. 1957.
  2. ^ a b c d e f Edinburgh International Festival 1958 Souvenir Programme. 1958.
  3. ^ a b c d e f g Edinburgh International Festival 1959 Souvenir Programme. 1959.
  4. ^ a b c d e f Edinburgh International Festival 1960 Souvenir Programme. 1960.
  5. ^ a b c d e f g h Edinburgh International Festival 1961 Souvenir Programme. 1961.
  6. ^ a b c d e Edinburgh International Festival 1962 Souvenir Programme. 1962.
  7. ^ a b c d e f Edinburgh International Festival 1963 Souvenir Programme. 1963.
  8. ^ a b c d e Edinburgh International Festival 1964 Souvenir Programme. 1964.
  9. ^ a b c d e Edinburgh International Festival 1965 Souvenir Programme. 1965.
  10. ^ a b c d e f g h i j Edinburgh International Festival 1966 Souvenir Programme. 1966.