Screening the Royal Shakespeare Company: A Critical History in Bloomington, MN

No theatre company has been involved in such a broad range of adaptations for television and cinema as the Royal Shakespeare Company. Starting with
Richard III
filmed in the Shakespeare Memorial Theatre before World War One, the RSC's accomplishments continue today with highly successful live cinema broadcasts.
The Wars of the Roses
(BBC, 1965), Peter Brook's film of
King Lear
(1971), Channel 4's epic version of
Nicholas Nickleby
(1982) and
Hamlet
with David Tennant (BBC, 2009) are among their most iconic adaptations. Many other RSC productions live on as extracts in documentaries, as archival recordings, in trailers and in other fragmentary forms.
Now available in paperback,
Screening the Royal Shakespeare Company
explores this remarkable history of collaborations between stage and screen and considers key questions about adaptation that concern all those involved in theatre, film and television. John Wyver is a broadcasting historian and the producer of RSC Live from Stratford-upon-Avon, and is uniquely well-placed to provide a vivid account of the company's television and film productions. He contributes an award-winning practitioner's insight into screen adaptation's numerous challenges and rich potential.