Glen Byam Shaw
Encyclopedia
Glen Byam Shaw was an English actor and theatre director, known for his dramatic productions in the 1950s and his operatic productions in the 1960s and later.
In the 1920s and 1930s Byam Shaw was a successful actor, both in romantic leads and in character parts. He worked frequently with his old friend John Gielgud
. After working as co-director with Gielgud at the end of the 1930s, he preferred to direct rather than act. He served in the armed forces during the Second World War, and then took leading directorial posts at the Old Vic
, the Shakespeare Memorial Theatre and Sadler's Wells
(later English National) Opera.
Among his best-known collaborators were Peggy Ashcroft
, Laurence Olivier
, Charles Laughton
and Michael Redgrave
in the theatre, and Colin Davis
and Reginald Goodall
in the opera house.
where his contemporaries included his elder brother James Byam Shaw, later a well-known art historian, and John Gielgud
, who became a lifelong friend and professional colleague.
The actor Michael Denison
, biographer of Byam Shaw in the Oxford Dictionary of National Biography writes that Byam Shaw made his professional stage debut in August 1923 with no prior training. Denison speculates that Byam Shaw's cousin the actress May Ward, a close friend of Ellen Terry
, "may have been enough to make him take the plunge". The Times
said of him, "Tall, gentle, and graceful in movement, he was valuable in any cast, particularly in classics and in the Russian plays."
Byam Shaw's first appearance was at Torquay
in the west of England, in C. K. Munro's comedy At Mrs. Beam's. In 1925 he made his London debut, playing Yasha in J.B. Fagan's production of The Cherry Orchard
, in a cast that included Alan Napier
as Gaiev, O.B. Clarence as Firs and Gielgud as the young student Trofimov. Over the next few years Byam Shaw appeared in three more plays by Chekhov, and in plays by Strindberg and Ibsen. He made his New York debut in November 1927 as Pelham Humphrey in And So To Bed.
The leading actress Constance Collier
was impressed by Byam Shaw and used her influence to gain him roles. Among those to whom she introduced him was Ivor Novello
, then a leading figure in London theatre. She directed them both in the play Down Hill in 1926. Novello was a predatory and often heartless homosexual, and Byam Shaw emerged from a brief relationship with him emotionally bruised. This drew him into contact with the poet Siegfried Sassoon
, a friend of Collier; he, too, had been hurt by a relationship with Novello, and he and Byam Shaw became close. Their friendship lasted for the rest of Sassoon's life, although they ceased to be partners quite quickly; Sassoon became involved with Stephen Tennant
, and Byam Shaw fell in love with an actress, Angela Baddeley
. They married in 1929. The marriage, which lasted until her death in 1976, was, Denison writes, "a supremely happy one, both domestically and professionally". They had a son and a daughter.
's mime play The Miracle, with Lady Diana Cooper
as the Madonna, Tilly Losch
as the nun and Leonid Massine as the Spielmann. In 1933, Byam Shaw took over from Gielgud as Richard II
in the long-running play Richard of Bordeaux by Gordon Daviot
; the following year he played Darnley in another historical play by the same author, Queen of Scots, with Gwen Ffrangcon-Davies
and Laurence Olivier
, directed by Gielgud.
Byam Shaw continued to work with Gielgud, playing Laertes to his Hamlet
in 1934, and Benvolio in the celebrated 1935 Old Vic
production of Romeo and Juliet
with Peggy Ashcroft
as Juliet and Gielgud and Olivier alternating the roles of Romeo and Mercutio. During that Old Vic season, Gielgud invited Byam Shaw to join him in directing Richard II
for the Oxford University Dramatic Society
. Denison, who was in the cast, describes Byam Shaw as "stimulating, firm, and courteous to his undergraduate cast". Byam Shaw enjoyed the experience of directing, and never having especially enjoyed acting he turned gladly to direction. Gielgud engaged Byam Shaw to direct Dodie Smith
's Dear Octopus
in 1938 with a cast including Gielgud, Marie Tempest
, Kate Cutler
and Baddeley. Byam Shaw concluded his acting career in the late 1930s in roles including D'Arcy in a dramatisation of Pride and Prejudice
, character parts in The Merchant of Venice
and Richard II, and Sir Benjamin Backbite in The School for Scandal
. After appearing in Michel Saint-Denis
's short season at the Phoenix Theatre
in 1938, his final role was Horatio to Gielgud's Hamlet, both in London and at Elsinore Castle.
As the Second World War loomed, Byam Shaw joined the emergency reserve of officers. In 1940 he was commissioned into the Royal Scots Guards. He served in Burma from 1942 and was wounded. He ended his military service in 1945 as a major, making training films in India. While in Burma Byam Shaw conceived a production of Antony and Cleopatra
dressed in the costumes of Shakespeare's time, rather than those of Ancient Rome and Egypt. On his return to civilian life, he directed it at the Piccadilly Theatre
in 1946, with Godfrey Tearle
and Edith Evans
. The Manchester Guardian called his production "a very adroit and finished piece of work."
which also included the Young Vic run by George Devine
. Denison writes "Despite much success in all fields the three partners fell foul of the Vic governors and of the theatre's top-heavy and largely hostile administration". The same board had earlier dismissed Ralph Richardson
and Laurence Olivier as heads of the Old Vic company, and now lost another leading team when Saint-Denis, Devine and Byan Shaw resigned in 1951.
From 1952 to 1959 Byam Shaw was director of the Shakespeare Memorial Theatre in Stratford-upon-Avon
, first as co-director with Anthony Quayle
, and in sole charge from 1956 to 1959. He was appointed CBE
in 1954. He directed 14 plays at Stratford; Denison singles out Antony and Cleopatra
with Michael Redgrave
and Ashcroft, Macbeth
with Olivier and Vivien Leigh
, As You Like It
with Ashcroft, Othello with Harry Andrews
and Emlyn Williams
, and King Lear
with Charles Laughton
and Albert Finney
. Before the 1950s, Stratford seasons had been widely regarded as worthy but unexciting. Under Quayle and Byam Shaw Stratford became one of the principal centres of British theatre, attracting the leading directors such as Gielgud, Peter Hall and Peter Brook
. In 1959, Byam Shaw handed over to Hall, whom he had chosen as his successor.
, and musical director, Colin Davis
. Tucker's successor, Lord Harewood
, recalled "a series of striking productions, including The Rake's Progress
, Così fan tutte
, Der Freischütz
and A Masked Ball
… a notable elegant and witty Die Fledermaus
, Hansel and Gretel … and Gluck
's Orpheus
."
Byam Shaw's most celebrated opera productions were in collaboration with the conductor Reginald Goodall
, first The Mastersingers
, the company's last major production at Sadler's Wells Theatre
, and, after its move to the London Coliseum in 1968, the four operas of Wagner
's Ring
cycle, in which Byam Shaw's co-director was his former assistant John Blatchley. Byam Shaw's last collaboration with Goodall was Tristan and Isolde
in 1981.
Byam Shaw died in Goring-on-Thames
at the age of 81.
In the 1920s and 1930s Byam Shaw was a successful actor, both in romantic leads and in character parts. He worked frequently with his old friend John Gielgud
John Gielgud
Sir Arthur John Gielgud, OM, CH was an English actor, director, and producer. A descendant of the renowned Terry acting family, he achieved early international acclaim for his youthful, emotionally expressive Hamlet which broke box office records on Broadway in 1937...
. After working as co-director with Gielgud at the end of the 1930s, he preferred to direct rather than act. He served in the armed forces during the Second World War, and then took leading directorial posts at the Old Vic
Old Vic
The Old Vic is a theatre located just south-east of Waterloo Station in London on the corner of The Cut and Waterloo Road. Established in 1818 as the Royal Coburg Theatre, it was taken over by Emma Cons in 1880 when it was known formally as the Royal Victoria Hall. In 1898, a niece of Cons, Lilian...
, the Shakespeare Memorial Theatre and Sadler's Wells
English National Opera
English National Opera is an opera company based in London, resident at the London Coliseum in St. Martin's Lane. It is one of the two principal opera companies in London, along with the Royal Opera, Covent Garden...
(later English National) Opera.
Among his best-known collaborators were Peggy Ashcroft
Peggy Ashcroft
Dame Peggy Ashcroft, DBE was an English actress.-Early years:Born as Edith Margaret Emily Ashcroft in Croydon, Ashcroft attended the Woodford School, Croydon and the Central School of Speech and Drama...
, Laurence Olivier
Laurence Olivier
Laurence Kerr Olivier, Baron Olivier, OM was an English actor, director, and producer. He was one of the most famous and revered actors of the 20th century. He married three times, to fellow actors Jill Esmond, Vivien Leigh, and Joan Plowright...
, Charles Laughton
Charles Laughton
Charles Laughton was an English-American stage and film actor, screenwriter, producer and director.-Early life and career:...
and Michael Redgrave
Michael Redgrave
Sir Michael Scudamore Redgrave, CBE was an English stage and film actor, director, manager and author.-Youth and education:...
in the theatre, and Colin Davis
Colin Davis
Sir Colin Rex Davis, CH, CBE is an English conductor. His repertoire is broad, but among the composers with whom he is particularly associated are Mozart, Berlioz, Elgar, Sibelius, Stravinsky and Tippett....
and Reginald Goodall
Reginald Goodall
Sir Reginald Goodall was an English conductor, noted for his performances of the operas of Richard Wagner and conducting the premieres of several operas by Benjamin Britten.-Biography:...
in the opera house.
Early years
Shaw was born Glencairn Alexander Byam Shaw in London, the fourth in the family of four sons and one daughter of the artist John Byam Liston Shaw and his wife, also an artist, (Caroline) Evelyn Eunice Pyke-Nott (1870–1959). He was educated at Westminster SchoolWestminster School
The Royal College of St. Peter in Westminster, almost always known as Westminster School, is one of Britain's leading independent schools, with the highest Oxford and Cambridge acceptance rate of any secondary school or college in Britain...
where his contemporaries included his elder brother James Byam Shaw, later a well-known art historian, and John Gielgud
John Gielgud
Sir Arthur John Gielgud, OM, CH was an English actor, director, and producer. A descendant of the renowned Terry acting family, he achieved early international acclaim for his youthful, emotionally expressive Hamlet which broke box office records on Broadway in 1937...
, who became a lifelong friend and professional colleague.
The actor Michael Denison
Michael Denison
John Michael Terence Wellesley Denison CBE was an English actor.-Background:Denison was born in Doncaster, South Yorkshire in 1915. He was raised by his aunt and uncle from the age of three weeks, following the death of his mother and his estrangement from his father. He was educated at Harrow...
, biographer of Byam Shaw in the Oxford Dictionary of National Biography writes that Byam Shaw made his professional stage debut in August 1923 with no prior training. Denison speculates that Byam Shaw's cousin the actress May Ward, a close friend of Ellen Terry
Ellen Terry
Dame Ellen Terry, GBE was an English stage actress who became the leading Shakespearean actress in Britain. Among the members of her famous family is her great nephew, John Gielgud....
, "may have been enough to make him take the plunge". The Times
The Times
The Times is a British daily national newspaper, first published in London in 1785 under the title The Daily Universal Register . The Times and its sister paper The Sunday Times are published by Times Newspapers Limited, a subsidiary since 1981 of News International...
said of him, "Tall, gentle, and graceful in movement, he was valuable in any cast, particularly in classics and in the Russian plays."
Byam Shaw's first appearance was at Torquay
Torquay
Torquay is a town in the unitary authority area of Torbay and ceremonial county of Devon, England. It lies south of Exeter along the A380 on the north of Torbay, north-east of Plymouth and adjoins the neighbouring town of Paignton on the west of the bay. Torquay’s population of 63,998 during the...
in the west of England, in C. K. Munro's comedy At Mrs. Beam's. In 1925 he made his London debut, playing Yasha in J.B. Fagan's production of The Cherry Orchard
The Cherry Orchard
The Cherry Orchard is Russian playwright Anton Chekhov's last play. It premiered at the Moscow Art Theatre 17 January 1904 in a production directed by Constantin Stanislavski. Chekhov intended this play as a comedy and it does contain some elements of farce; however, Stanislavski insisted on...
, in a cast that included Alan Napier
Alan Napier
Alan William Napier-Clavering was an English actor, best known for portraying Alfred Pennyworth in the 1960s live-action Batman television series.-Early life and career:...
as Gaiev, O.B. Clarence as Firs and Gielgud as the young student Trofimov. Over the next few years Byam Shaw appeared in three more plays by Chekhov, and in plays by Strindberg and Ibsen. He made his New York debut in November 1927 as Pelham Humphrey in And So To Bed.
The leading actress Constance Collier
Constance Collier
Constance Collier was an English film actress and acting coach.-Life and career:Born Laura Constance Hardie, in Windsor, Berkshire, Collier made her stage debut at the age of 3, when she played Fairy Peasblossom in A Midsummer's Night Dream...
was impressed by Byam Shaw and used her influence to gain him roles. Among those to whom she introduced him was Ivor Novello
Ivor Novello
David Ivor Davies , better known as Ivor Novello, was a Welsh composer, singer and actor who became one of the most popular British entertainers of the first half of the 20th century. Born into a musical family, his first successes were as a songwriter...
, then a leading figure in London theatre. She directed them both in the play Down Hill in 1926. Novello was a predatory and often heartless homosexual, and Byam Shaw emerged from a brief relationship with him emotionally bruised. This drew him into contact with the poet Siegfried Sassoon
Siegfried Sassoon
Siegfried Loraine Sassoon CBE MC was an English poet, author and soldier. Decorated for bravery on the Western Front, he became one of the leading poets of the First World War. His poetry both described the horrors of the trenches, and satirised the patriotic pretensions of those who, in Sassoon's...
, a friend of Collier; he, too, had been hurt by a relationship with Novello, and he and Byam Shaw became close. Their friendship lasted for the rest of Sassoon's life, although they ceased to be partners quite quickly; Sassoon became involved with Stephen Tennant
Stephen Tennant
Stephen James Napier Tennant was a British aristocrat known for his decadent lifestyle. It is said, albeit apocryphally, that he spent most of his life in bed.-Early life:...
, and Byam Shaw fell in love with an actress, Angela Baddeley
Angela Baddeley
Angela Baddeley, CBE , born Madeline Angela Clinton-Baddeley, was an English actress best remembered for her role as Mrs Bridges in the period drama Upstairs, Downstairs...
. They married in 1929. The marriage, which lasted until her death in 1976, was, Denison writes, "a supremely happy one, both domestically and professionally". They had a son and a daughter.
1930s and World War II
Byam Shaw and Baddeley toured together in South Africa in 1931, in a repertory of three plays. The following year, Byam Shaw appeared at the Lyceum in Max ReinhardtMax Reinhardt
----Max Reinhardt was an Austrian theater and film director and actor.-Biography:...
's mime play The Miracle, with Lady Diana Cooper
Lady Diana Cooper
Lady Diana Cooper, Viscountess Norwich was an English socialite and actress.-Birth and youth:Born Lady Diana Olivia Winifred Maud Manners, she was officially the youngest daughter of the 8th Duke of Rutland and his wife, the former Violet Lindsay, but Lady Diana's real father was widely supposed...
as the Madonna, Tilly Losch
Tilly Losch
Ottilie Ethel Leopoldine "Tilly" Losch, Countess of Carnarvon was an Austrian-born dancer, choreographer, actress and painter who lived and worked for most of her life in the United States and United Kingdom....
as the nun and Leonid Massine as the Spielmann. In 1933, Byam Shaw took over from Gielgud as Richard II
Richard II of England
Richard II was King of England, a member of the House of Plantagenet and the last of its main-line kings. He ruled from 1377 until he was deposed in 1399. Richard was a son of Edward, the Black Prince, and was born during the reign of his grandfather, Edward III...
in the long-running play Richard of Bordeaux by Gordon Daviot
Josephine Tey
Josephine Tey was a pseudonym used by Elizabeth Mackintosh a Scottish author best known for her mystery novels. She also wrote as Gordon Daviot, under which name she wrote plays with an historical theme....
; the following year he played Darnley in another historical play by the same author, Queen of Scots, with Gwen Ffrangcon-Davies
Gwen Ffrangcon-Davies
Dame Gwen Lucy Ffrangcon-Davies, DBE was a British actress and centenarian. She was born in London of a Welsh family; the name "Ffrangcon" originates from a valley in Snowdonia...
and Laurence Olivier
Laurence Olivier
Laurence Kerr Olivier, Baron Olivier, OM was an English actor, director, and producer. He was one of the most famous and revered actors of the 20th century. He married three times, to fellow actors Jill Esmond, Vivien Leigh, and Joan Plowright...
, directed by Gielgud.
Byam Shaw continued to work with Gielgud, playing Laertes to his Hamlet
Hamlet
The Tragical History of Hamlet, Prince of Denmark, or more simply Hamlet, is a tragedy by William Shakespeare, believed to have been written between 1599 and 1601...
in 1934, and Benvolio in the celebrated 1935 Old Vic
Old Vic
The Old Vic is a theatre located just south-east of Waterloo Station in London on the corner of The Cut and Waterloo Road. Established in 1818 as the Royal Coburg Theatre, it was taken over by Emma Cons in 1880 when it was known formally as the Royal Victoria Hall. In 1898, a niece of Cons, Lilian...
production of Romeo and Juliet
Romeo and Juliet
Romeo and Juliet is a tragedy written early in the career of playwright William Shakespeare about two young star-crossed lovers whose deaths ultimately unite their feuding families. It was among Shakespeare's most popular archetypal stories of young, teenage lovers.Romeo and Juliet belongs to a...
with Peggy Ashcroft
Peggy Ashcroft
Dame Peggy Ashcroft, DBE was an English actress.-Early years:Born as Edith Margaret Emily Ashcroft in Croydon, Ashcroft attended the Woodford School, Croydon and the Central School of Speech and Drama...
as Juliet and Gielgud and Olivier alternating the roles of Romeo and Mercutio. During that Old Vic season, Gielgud invited Byam Shaw to join him in directing Richard II
Richard II (play)
King Richard the Second is a history play by William Shakespeare believed to be written in approximately 1595. It is based on the life of King Richard II of England and is the first part of a tetralogy, referred to by some scholars as the Henriad, followed by three plays concerning Richard's...
for the Oxford University Dramatic Society
Oxford University Dramatic Society
The Oxford University Dramatic Society is the principal funding body and provider of theatrical services to the many independent student productions put on by students in Oxford, England...
. Denison, who was in the cast, describes Byam Shaw as "stimulating, firm, and courteous to his undergraduate cast". Byam Shaw enjoyed the experience of directing, and never having especially enjoyed acting he turned gladly to direction. Gielgud engaged Byam Shaw to direct Dodie Smith
Dodie Smith
Dorothy Gladys "Dodie" Smith was an English novelist and playwright. Smith is best known for her novel The Hundred and One Dalmatians. Her other works include I Capture the Castle and The Starlight Barking....
's Dear Octopus
Dear Octopus (play)
Dear Octopus is 1938 play by the British writer Dodie Smith. It was first staged at the Queen's Theatre with John Geilgud and was a major success.-Adaptation:...
in 1938 with a cast including Gielgud, Marie Tempest
Marie Tempest
Dame Marie Tempest DBE was an English singer and actress known as the "queen of her profession".Tempest became the most famous soprano in late Victorian light opera and Edwardian musical comedies. Later, she became a leading comic actress and toured widely in North America and elsewhere...
, Kate Cutler
Kate Cutler
Kate Ellen Louisa Cutler was an English singer and actress, known in the late nineteenth and early twentieth centuries as an ingénue in musical comedies, and later as a character actress in comic and dramatic plays...
and Baddeley. Byam Shaw concluded his acting career in the late 1930s in roles including D'Arcy in a dramatisation of Pride and Prejudice
Pride and Prejudice
Pride and Prejudice is a novel by Jane Austen, first published in 1813. The story follows the main character Elizabeth Bennet as she deals with issues of manners, upbringing, morality, education and marriage in the society of the landed gentry of early 19th-century England...
, character parts in The Merchant of Venice
The Merchant of Venice
The Merchant of Venice is a tragic comedy by William Shakespeare, believed to have been written between 1596 and 1598. Though classified as a comedy in the First Folio and sharing certain aspects with Shakespeare's other romantic comedies, the play is perhaps most remembered for its dramatic...
and Richard II, and Sir Benjamin Backbite in The School for Scandal
The School for Scandal
The School for Scandal is a play written by Richard Brinsley Sheridan. It was first performed in London at Drury Lane Theatre on May 8, 1777.The prologue, written by David Garrick, commends the play, its subject, and its author to the audience...
. After appearing in Michel Saint-Denis
Michel Saint-Denis
Michel Saint-Denis , dit Jacques Duchesne, was a French actor, theater director, and drama theorist whose ideas on actor training have had a profound influence on the development of European theater from the 1930s on.Michel Saint-Denis was born in Beauvais, France, the nephew of Jacques Copeau, who...
's short season at the Phoenix Theatre
Phoenix Theatre
Phoenix Theatre may refer to:*Phoenix Arts Centre, former name was Phoenix Theatre in Leicester, UK*Phoenix Theatre , a West End theatre*Phoenix Theatre , a professional alternative theatre*Phoenix Theatre , a regional theatre...
in 1938, his final role was Horatio to Gielgud's Hamlet, both in London and at Elsinore Castle.
As the Second World War loomed, Byam Shaw joined the emergency reserve of officers. In 1940 he was commissioned into the Royal Scots Guards. He served in Burma from 1942 and was wounded. He ended his military service in 1945 as a major, making training films in India. While in Burma Byam Shaw conceived a production of Antony and Cleopatra
Antony and Cleopatra
Antony and Cleopatra is a tragedy by William Shakespeare, believed to have been written sometime between 1603 and 1607. It was first printed in the First Folio of 1623. The plot is based on Thomas North's translation of Plutarch's Lives and follows the relationship between Cleopatra and Mark Antony...
dressed in the costumes of Shakespeare's time, rather than those of Ancient Rome and Egypt. On his return to civilian life, he directed it at the Piccadilly Theatre
Piccadilly Theatre
The Piccadilly Theatre is a West End theatre located at 16 Denman Street, behind Piccadilly Circus and adjacent to the Regent Palace Hotel, in the City of Westminster, England.-Early years:Built by Bertie Crewe and Edward A...
in 1946, with Godfrey Tearle
Godfrey Tearle
Sir Godfrey Seymour Tearle was a British actor who portrayed the quintessential Englishman on stage and in both English and US films.-Biography:...
and Edith Evans
Edith Evans
Dame Edith Mary Evans, DBE was a British actress. She was known for her work on the British stage. She also appeared in a number of films, for which she received three Academy Award nominations, plus a BAFTA and a Golden Globe award.Evans was particularly effective at portraying haughty...
. The Manchester Guardian called his production "a very adroit and finished piece of work."
Old Vic and Stratford
Between 1947 and 1951 Byam Shaw was the director of the Old Vic Theatre School, part of the Old Vic Theatre Centre run by Michel Saint-DenisMichel Saint-Denis
Michel Saint-Denis , dit Jacques Duchesne, was a French actor, theater director, and drama theorist whose ideas on actor training have had a profound influence on the development of European theater from the 1930s on.Michel Saint-Denis was born in Beauvais, France, the nephew of Jacques Copeau, who...
which also included the Young Vic run by George Devine
George Devine
George Alexander Cassady Devine CBE was an extremely influential theatrical manager, director, teacher and actor in London from the late 1940s until his death. He also worked in the media of TV and film.-Biography:...
. Denison writes "Despite much success in all fields the three partners fell foul of the Vic governors and of the theatre's top-heavy and largely hostile administration". The same board had earlier dismissed Ralph Richardson
Ralph Richardson
Sir Ralph David Richardson was an English actor, one of a group of theatrical knights of the mid-20th century who, though more closely associated with the stage, also appeared in several classic films....
and Laurence Olivier as heads of the Old Vic company, and now lost another leading team when Saint-Denis, Devine and Byan Shaw resigned in 1951.
From 1952 to 1959 Byam Shaw was director of the Shakespeare Memorial Theatre in Stratford-upon-Avon
Stratford-upon-Avon
Stratford-upon-Avon is a market town and civil parish in south Warwickshire, England. It lies on the River Avon, south east of Birmingham and south west of Warwick. It is the largest and most populous town of the District of Stratford-on-Avon, which uses the term "on" to indicate that it covers...
, first as co-director with Anthony Quayle
Anthony Quayle
Sir John Anthony Quayle, CBE was an English actor and director.-Early life:Quayle was born in Ainsdale, Southport, in Lancashire to a Manx family....
, and in sole charge from 1956 to 1959. He was appointed CBE
Order of the British Empire
The Most Excellent Order of the British Empire is an order of chivalry established on 4 June 1917 by George V of the United Kingdom. The Order comprises five classes in civil and military divisions...
in 1954. He directed 14 plays at Stratford; Denison singles out Antony and Cleopatra
Antony and Cleopatra
Antony and Cleopatra is a tragedy by William Shakespeare, believed to have been written sometime between 1603 and 1607. It was first printed in the First Folio of 1623. The plot is based on Thomas North's translation of Plutarch's Lives and follows the relationship between Cleopatra and Mark Antony...
with Michael Redgrave
Michael Redgrave
Sir Michael Scudamore Redgrave, CBE was an English stage and film actor, director, manager and author.-Youth and education:...
and Ashcroft, Macbeth
Macbeth
The Tragedy of Macbeth is a play by William Shakespeare about a regicide and its aftermath. It is Shakespeare's shortest tragedy and is believed to have been written sometime between 1603 and 1607...
with Olivier and Vivien Leigh
Vivien Leigh
Vivien Leigh, Lady Olivier was an English actress. She won the Best Actress Academy Award for her portrayal of Blanche DuBois in A Streetcar Named Desire , a role she also played on stage in London's West End, as well as for her portrayal of the southern belle Scarlett O'Hara, alongside Clark...
, As You Like It
As You Like It
As You Like It is a pastoral comedy by William Shakespeare believed to have been written in 1599 or early 1600 and first published in the folio of 1623. The play's first performance is uncertain, though a performance at Wilton House in 1603 has been suggested as a possibility...
with Ashcroft, Othello with Harry Andrews
Harry Andrews
Harry Fleetwood Andrews, CBE was an English film actor known for his frequent portrayals of tough military officers. His performance as Sergeant Major Wilson in The Hill alongside Sean Connery earned Andrews the 1965 National Board of Review Award for Best Supporting Actor and a nomination for the...
and Emlyn Williams
Emlyn Williams
George Emlyn Williams, CBE , known as Emlyn Williams, was a Welsh dramatist and actor.-Biography:He was born into a Welsh-speaking, working class family in Mostyn, Flintshire....
, and King Lear
King Lear
King Lear is a tragedy by William Shakespeare. The title character descends into madness after foolishly disposing of his estate between two of his three daughters based on their flattery, bringing tragic consequences for all. The play is based on the legend of Leir of Britain, a mythological...
with Charles Laughton
Charles Laughton
Charles Laughton was an English-American stage and film actor, screenwriter, producer and director.-Early life and career:...
and Albert Finney
Albert Finney
Albert Finney is an English actor. He achieved prominence in films in the early 1960s, and has maintained a successful career in theatre, film and television....
. Before the 1950s, Stratford seasons had been widely regarded as worthy but unexciting. Under Quayle and Byam Shaw Stratford became one of the principal centres of British theatre, attracting the leading directors such as Gielgud, Peter Hall and Peter Brook
Peter Brook
Peter Stephen Paul Brook CH, CBE is an English theatre and film director and innovator, who has been based in France since the early 1970s.-Life:...
. In 1959, Byam Shaw handed over to Hall, whom he had chosen as his successor.
Opera
In 1962, despite describing himself as tone deaf, Byam Shaw accepted the post of director of productions at Sadler's Wells Opera. He worked closely with the company's managing director, Norman TuckerNorman Tucker
Norman Walter Gwynn Tucker was an English musician, administrator and translator. Trained as a concert pianist, he was invited to join Sadler's Wells Opera in 1947 in an administrative role, and from 1948 to 1966 he was the managerial head of the company.His translations of operas new to the...
, and musical director, Colin Davis
Colin Davis
Sir Colin Rex Davis, CH, CBE is an English conductor. His repertoire is broad, but among the composers with whom he is particularly associated are Mozart, Berlioz, Elgar, Sibelius, Stravinsky and Tippett....
. Tucker's successor, Lord Harewood
George Lascelles, 7th Earl of Harewood
George Henry Hubert Lascelles, 7th Earl of Harewood, KBE AM , styled The Hon. George Lascelles before 1929 and Viscount Lascelles between 1929 and 1947, was the elder son of the 6th Earl of Harewood , and Princess Mary, Princess Royal, the only daughter of King George V of the United Kingdom and...
, recalled "a series of striking productions, including The Rake's Progress
The Rake's Progress
The Rake's Progress is an opera in three acts and an epilogue by Igor Stravinsky. The libretto, written by W. H. Auden and Chester Kallman, is based loosely on the eight paintings and engravings A Rake's Progress of William Hogarth, which Stravinsky had seen on May 2, 1947, in a Chicago...
, Così fan tutte
Così fan tutte
Così fan tutte, ossia La scuola degli amanti K. 588, is an opera buffa by Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart first performed in 1790. The libretto was written by Lorenzo Da Ponte....
, Der Freischütz
Der Freischütz
Der Freischütz is an opera in three acts by Carl Maria von Weber with a libretto by Friedrich Kind. It premiered on 18 June 1821 at the Schauspielhaus Berlin...
and A Masked Ball
Un ballo in maschera
Un ballo in maschera , is an opera in three acts by Giuseppe Verdi with text by Antonio Somma. The libretto is loosely based on an 1833 play, Gustave III, by French playwright Eugène Scribe who wrote about the historical assassination of King Gustav III of Sweden...
… a notable elegant and witty Die Fledermaus
Die Fledermaus
Die Fledermaus is an operetta composed by Johann Strauss II to a German libretto by Karl Haffner and Richard Genée.- Literary sources :...
, Hansel and Gretel … and Gluck
Christoph Willibald Gluck
Christoph Willibald Ritter von Gluck was an opera composer of the early classical period. After many years at the Habsburg court at Vienna, Gluck brought about the practical reform of opera's dramaturgical practices that many intellectuals had been campaigning for over the years...
's Orpheus
Orfeo ed Euridice
Orfeo ed Euridice is an opera composed by Christoph Willibald Gluck based on the myth of Orpheus, set to a libretto by Ranieri de' Calzabigi. It belongs to the genre of the azione teatrale, meaning an opera on a mythological subject with choruses and dancing...
."
Byam Shaw's most celebrated opera productions were in collaboration with the conductor Reginald Goodall
Reginald Goodall
Sir Reginald Goodall was an English conductor, noted for his performances of the operas of Richard Wagner and conducting the premieres of several operas by Benjamin Britten.-Biography:...
, first The Mastersingers
Die Meistersinger von Nürnberg
Die Meistersinger von Nürnberg is an opera in three acts, written and composed by Richard Wagner. It is among the longest operas still commonly performed today, usually taking around four and a half hours. It was first performed at the Königliches Hof- und National-Theater in Munich, on June 21,...
, the company's last major production at Sadler's Wells Theatre
Sadler's Wells Theatre
Sadler's Wells Theatre is a performing arts venue located in Rosebery Avenue, Clerkenwell in the London Borough of Islington. The present day theatre is the sixth on the site since 1683. It consists of two performance spaces: a 1,500 seat main auditorium and the Lilian Baylis Studio, with extensive...
, and, after its move to the London Coliseum in 1968, the four operas of Wagner
Richard Wagner
Wilhelm Richard Wagner was a German composer, conductor, theatre director, philosopher, music theorist, poet, essayist and writer primarily known for his operas...
's Ring
Der Ring des Nibelungen
Der Ring des Nibelungen is a cycle of four epic operas by the German composer Richard Wagner . The works are based loosely on characters from the Norse sagas and the Nibelungenlied...
cycle, in which Byam Shaw's co-director was his former assistant John Blatchley. Byam Shaw's last collaboration with Goodall was Tristan and Isolde
Tristan und Isolde
Tristan und Isolde is an opera, or music drama, in three acts by Richard Wagner to a German libretto by the composer, based largely on the romance by Gottfried von Straßburg. It was composed between 1857 and 1859 and premiered in Munich on 10 June 1865 with Hans von Bülow conducting...
in 1981.
Byam Shaw died in Goring-on-Thames
Goring-On-Thames
Goring-on-Thames is a large village and civil parish on the River Thames in South Oxfordshire, about south of Wallingford.-Geography:...
at the age of 81.