Introduction Post War West End Joan Littlewood and the Theatre Workshop The Explosion of New Writing  The Royal Court Theatre 20th Century Shakespeare  The Royal Shakespeare Company Peter Brook and Peter Hall The National Theatre Alternative Theatre Physical and Visual Theatre ‘In Yer Face’ Theatre

Tim West as Falstaff

In 1946 the Arts Council was established with an annual grant to distribute among the arts. This ensured the survival of companies like the Sadler’s Wells Ballet and Opera and the eventual establishment of the Royal Opera, the Royal Shakespeare Company, and the National Theatre as well as supporting theatre in the regions and the work of individual artists and companies.

The New Men

The Heiress

By 1956 the Arts Council was subsidising forty companies across the country and between 1958 and 1970 fifteen new theatres had been constructed with public money.

Post war drama saw the rise of director’s theatre, best illustrated by the meteoric careers of directors Peter Brook and Peter Hall. It also saw an explosion of new writing with John Osborne’s Look Back in Anger seen as the landmark for a new generation of young writers who included Arnold Wesker, Tom Stoppard, Edward Bond and Harold Pinter.

Richard of Bordeaux

A Penny for a Song

George Devine at the Royal Court pledged to support writer’s theatre and small venues continued to promote and support new writing as more experimental productions moved into the mainstream theatres.

The National Theatre Company was formed in 1963 at the Old Vic under Laurence Olivier and moved to its new home on London’s South Bank in 1976 directed by Peter Hall. Peter Hall had also directed the first years of the Royal Shakespeare Company at Stratford-upon-Avon.

Cat on a Hot Tin Roof

Entertaining Mr Sloane Programme

Political theatre flourished - notably the work of Joan Littlewood, and Portable Theatre Company who produced young political writers such as John McGrath, David Edgar, Trevor Griffiths, David Hare and Howard Brenton. The company Joint Stock pioneered a process of collaborative working, with writers workshopping their ideas with the company to develop a script. Joint Stock was responsible for developing many of Caryl Churchill’s early plays.

The Threepenny Opera: Macheath and Polly

Pinter's The Birthday Party

When censorship was finally ended in 1968 there was an explosion of fringe and alternative theatre. Political theatre, feminist theatre, gay theatre and community theatre all flourished before suffering in the arts’ cutbacks of the 1980s.

The Riot

THIS OBJECT HAS NOT BEEN VALIDATED Costume for The Visit