Drama at the Edinburgh International Festival: history and repertoire, 1967–1976

Drama was an increasingly important part of the Edinburgh International Festival during its third decade. There were a total of 85 productions that were put on stage.

There were a total of 42 theatrical companies that appeared during the decade, of which the most prolific were the Prospect Theatre Company formerly Prospect Productions, Royal Lyceum Theatre Company based in Edinburgh's Royal Lyceum Theatre, and the Actors Company, founded by Edward Petherbridge and others in 1972. Other important companies included Glasgow Citizens Theatre, Nottingham Playhouse Company, The National Theatre of Great Britain and La MaMa Company of New York.

Visiting companies came from the US, Ireland, Japan, Italy, Sweden, Switzerland, Belgium, Czechoslovakia, Romania, Poland and Bulgaria.

Many performances were at the same venues used in earlier years, notably the Royal Lyceum Theatre, The Assembly Hall, and the former Gateway Theatre, but new venues came into use such as Church Hill Theatre, Haymarket Ice Rink and the Moray House College.

List

Date Company Drama Venue Director Principal actors Notes and sources
1967 Haizlip-Stoiber Productions New York The Emperor Jones (Eugene O'Neill) Royal Lyceum Theatre
[1]
1967 Prospect Productions The Cherry Orchard (Anton Chekhov) Royal Lyceum Theatre
[1]
1967 Prospect Productions A Room with a View (Lance Sieveking and Richard Cottrell after the novel by E. M. Forster) Royal Lyceum Theatre
[1]
1967 Pop Theatre A Midsummer Night's Dream (William Shakespeare) The Assembly Hall
[1]
1967 Pop Theatre The Tricks of Scapin (Molière) The Assembly Hall
[1]
1967 Close Theatre Club in association with Citizens Theatre Glasgow Lunchtime Concert, The Inhabitants and Coda (Olwen Wymark) Gateway Theatre
  • Michael Meacham
[1]
1967 Marionetteatern, Stockholm The Wizard of Oz (adapted by Michael Meschke, from the story by L. Frank Baum) Gateway Theatre
  • Michael Meschke
[1]
1967 Marionetteatern, Stockholm Ubu Roi (Alfred Jarry) Gateway Theatre
  • Michael Meschke
[1]
1967 Hampstead Theatre Club Nathan and Tabileth and Oldenberg (Barry Bermange) Church Hill Theatre
[1]
1967 Traverse Theatre Club Tom Paine (Paul Foster) Church Hill Theatre
[1]
1967 Voyage Theatre Macbeth in Camera (Harold Lang) Church Hill Theatre
[1]
1967 Voyage Theatre Man Speaking (Harold Lang) Church Hill Theatre
[1]
1968 69 Theatre Company Hamlet (William Shakespeare) The Assembly Hall
[2]
1968 69 Theatre Company When We Dead Awaken (Henrik Ibsen) The Assembly Hall
[2]
1968 Prospect Productions The Beggar's Opera (John Gay) Royal Lyceum Theatre
[2]
1968 Glasgow Citizens' Theatre The Resistable Rise of Arturo Ui (Bertolt Brecht) Royal Lyceum Theatre
[2]
1968 Abbey Theatre Dublin The Playboy of the Western World (J M Synge) Royal Lyceum Theatre
[2]
1968 Trinity Square Repertory Company Years of the Locust (Norman Holland) Church Hill Theatre
  • Richard Kneeland
 [2]
1968 Traverse Theatre Club Mourning Becomes Electra (Eugene O'Neill) Traverse Theatre
[2]
1968 Laboratory Theatre '13 Rows' Wroclaw Acropolis (adapted by Jerzy Grotowski from the play by Stanisław Wyspiański)) 11 Cambridge Street (former festival office)
[2]
1969 Prospect Theatre Company Edward II (Christopher Marlowe) The Assembly Hall
[3]
1969 Prospect Theatre Company King Richard the Second (William Shakespeare) The Assembly Hall
[3]
1969 Scottish Actors' Company The Wild Duck (Henrik Ibsen) Royal Lyceum Theatre
[3]
1969 Bridge Productions Limited ZOO ZOO Widdershins ZOO (Kevin Laffan) Royal Lyceum Theatre
[3]
1969 The Nottingham Playhouse Company The Hero Rises Up (John Arden and Margaretta D'Arcy) Royal Lyceum Theatre
[3]
1969 The Nottingham Playhouse Company Widowers' Houses (George Bernard Shaw) Royal Lyceum Theatre
[3]
1969 Theatre on the Balustrade Prague The Button and The Fools (Ladislav Fialka) Church Hill Theatre
[3]
1969 Stables Theatre Company Would you look at them smashing all the windows (David Wright) Church Hill Theatre
  • Barry Davis
[3]
1969 The Central Puppet Theatre Sofia Prince Marko (Ivan Theofilov) Church Hill Theatre
  • Ivan Theofilov, Ivan Tsonev
[3]
1969 The Central Puppet Theatre Sofia Pinocchio Church Hill Theatre
  • Liliana Docheva
[3]
1969 The Central Puppet Theatre Sofia The Misanthrope (after Molière) Church Hill Theatre
  • Liuben Grois
[3]
1970 Prospect Theatre Company Much Ado About Nothing (William Shakespeare) The Assembly Hall
[4]
1970 Prospect Theatre Company Boswell's Life of Johnson (Bill Dutton, Toby Robertson and Ian Thorne) The Assembly Hall
[4]
1970 Deutsches Theater und Kammerspiele (Staatstheater der Deutschen Demokratischen Republik) Peace Die Frieden (Aristophanes) Royal Lyceum Theatre
[4]
1970 Royal Lyceum Theatre Company Random Happenings in the Hebrides (John McGrath) Royal Lyceum Theatre
[4]
1970 Royal Lyceum Theatre Company The Changeling (Thomas Middleton and William Rowley) Royal Lyceum Theatre
[4]
1970 Teatro Libero Rome Orlando Furioso (adapted from Ariosto by Edoardo Sanguineti) Haymarket Ice Rink
[4]
1970 Leeds Playhouse Company Henry IV (Luigi Pirandello translated by John Wardle) Church Hill Theatre
[4]
1970 Royal Shakespeare Company Pleasure and Repentance (Terry Hands) Royal Lyceum Theatre
[4]
1971 Prospect Theatre Company King Lear (William Shakespeare) The Assembly Hall
[5]
1971 National Theatre of Great Britain The Comedy of Errors (William Shakespeare) Haymarket Ice Rink
[5]
1971 Royal Lyceum Theatre Company Confessions of a Justified Sinner (James Hogg adapted by Jack Ronder) Royal Lyceum Theatre
[5]
1971 Bulandra Theatre Company, Bucharest, Romania Carnival Scenes (I L Caragiale) Royal Lyceum Theatre
[5]
1971 Bulandra Theatre Company, Bucharest, Romania Leonce and Lena (Georg Büchner) Royal Lyceum Theatre
[5]
1971 Long Wharf Theatre Company You can't take it with you (Moss Hart and George S. Kaufman) Royal Lyceum Theatre
[5]
1971 Long Wharf Theatre Company Solitaire and Double Solitaire (Robert Anderson) Royal Lyceum Theatre
[5]
1971 The Manhattan Project Alice in Wonderland based on (Lewis Carroll) 11 Cambridge Street
[5]
1972 The National Theatre of Great Britain present the Young Vic Productions The Comedy of Errors (William Shakespeare) Haymarket Ice Rink
[6]
1972 The National Theatre of Great Britain present the Young Vic Productions Bible One (Tim Rice with music by Andrew Lloyd Webber) Haymarket Ice Rink
[6]
1972 Citizens' Theatre Glasgow Tamburlaine the Great (Christopher Marlowe) The Assembly Hall
  • Keith Hack
[6]
1972 Citizens' Theatre Glasgow Twelfth Night (William Shakespeare) The Assembly Hall
[6]
1972 Hosho Noh Theatre Sumidagawa, Kakiyamabushi, Hagoromo Royal Lyceum Theatre
[6]
1972 Hosho Noh Theatre Kiyotsune, Boshibari, Ayanotsuzumi Royal Lyceum Theatre
[6]
1972 Cambridge Theatre Company with The Actors Company Ruling the Roost (Georges Feydeau translated by Richard Cottrell) Royal Lyceum Theatre
[6]
1972 Cambridge Theatre Company with The Actors Company 'Tis Pity She's a Whore (John Ford) Royal Lyceum Theatre
[6]
1972 Gruppo Sperimentazione Teatrale, Rome Moby Dick (Mario Ricci after Herman Melville) Church Hill Theatre
  • Mario Ricci
[6]
1972 Théâtre Laboratoire Vicinal, Brussels Tramp (Arthur Spilliaert) The Gateway
[6]
1972 Théâtre Laboratoire Vicinal, Brussels Luna Park The Gateway
[6]
1973 The Royal Lyceum Theatre Company of Edinburgh The Thrie Estaites (Sir David Lindsay) The Assembly Hall
[7]
1973 The Royal Lyceum Theatre Company The Knife (Ian Brown) Lyceum Studio
  • John David
[7]
1973 The Young Lyceum Company Woyzeck (Georg Büchner) The Assembly Hall
  • Radu Penciulescu
[7]
1973 Prospect Theatre Company Pericles (William Shakespeare) Royal Lyceum Theatre
[7]
1973 The Actors Company Flow (Gabriel Josipovici) and Knots (from the book by R. D. Laing) Lyceum Studio
[7]
1973 The Actors Company The Wood Demon (Anton Chekhov translated by Ronald Hingley) Royal Lyceum Theatre
[7]
1973 The Actors Company The Way of the World (William Congreve) Royal Lyceum Theatre
[7]
1973 Prospect Theatre Company Don Juan in Love (devised by Kenny McBain) Royal Lyceum Theatre
[7]
1974 The Actors Company The Bacchae (Euripides) The Assembly Hall
[8]
1974 The Actors Company Tartuffe (Molière) The Assembly Hall
  • Peter James
[8]
1974 Gothenburg City Theatre Gustav III (August Strindberg) Royal Lyceum Theatre
[8]
1974 Abbey Theatre Dublin King Oedipus (Sophocles) Royal Lyceum Theatre
[8]
1974 The Mummenschanz Company Church Hill Theatre
  • Andres Bossard, Bernie Schurch, Floriana Frasetto
 [8]
1974 The Performance Group The Tooth of Crime (Sam Shepard) Cambridge Street Studio
[8]
1975 Prospect Theatre Company Pilgrim (Jane McCulloch, adaptation and lyrics based on John Bunyan) The Assembly Hall
  • Paul Jones
 [9]
1975 The Royal Lyceum Theatre Company of Edinburgh How Mad Tulloch Was Taken Away (John Morris) Royal Lyceum Theatre
[9]
1975 Nottingham Playhouse Company As you like it (William Shakespeare) Royal Lyceum Theatre
[9]
1975 Cooperativo Tiuscolano Utopia (Aristophanes, adapted by Luca Ronconi) Haymarket Ice Rink
[9]
1976 La Mama Company, New York The Good Woman of Setzuan (Bertolt Brecht) Moray House College
  • Priscilla Smith
 [10]
1976 La Mama Company, New York Electra (Sophocles) Moray House College
  • Priscilla Smith
 [10]
1976 La Mama Company, New York Trojan Women (Euripides) Moray House College
  • Priscilla Smith, Natalie Gray, Valois Mickens, Onni Johnson
 [10]
1976 Birmingham Repertory Company Measure for Measure (William Shakespeare) The Assembly Hall
[10]
1976 Birmingham Repertory Company The Devil is an Ass (Ben Jonson adapted by Peter Barnes) The Assembly Hall
[10]
1976 Oxford Playhouse Company Pal Joey (music by Richard Rodgers and lyrics by Lorenz Hart after the book by John O'Hara) Royal Lyceum Theatre
  • Philip Hedley
[10]
1976 Bunraku, The National Puppet Theatre of Japan Heike Nyogo no Shima (The Priest in Exile) and Sonezaki Shinju (The Double Suicide at Sonezaki) Royal Lyceum Theatre
  • Nanba Haruo
[10]
1976 Bunraku, The National Puppet Theatre of Japan Ehon Taikoki (The Exploits of the Tycoon) and Shimpan Utazaimon (The Triangular Love) Royal Lyceum Theatre
  • Nanba Haruo
[10]
1976 Gruppo Teatro Libero Rome Masaniello (Elvio Porta and Armando Pugliese) Moray House College
[10]

See also

References

  1. ^ a b c d e f g h i j k l Edinburgh International Festival 1967. 1967.
  2. ^ a b c d e f g h Edinburgh International Festival 1968. 1968.
  3. ^ a b c d e f g h i j k Edinburgh International Festival 1969. 1969.
  4. ^ a b c d e f g h Edinburgh International Festival 1970. 1970.
  5. ^ a b c d e f g h Edinburgh International Festival 1971. 1971.
  6. ^ a b c d e f g h i j k Edinburgh International Festival 1972. 1972.
  7. ^ a b c d e f g h Edinburgh International Festival 1973. 1973.
  8. ^ a b c d e f Edinburgh International Festival 1974. 1974.
  9. ^ a b c d Edinburgh International Festival 1975. 1975.
  10. ^ a b c d e f g h i Edinburgh International Festival 1976. 1976.