Shakespeare left Stratford because he found the atmosphere in the town – at heart a Roman Catholic town under siege from a protestant state – totally unsuited to playwriting and acting. For Shakespeare London was where things were happening, where theatres were being built, in effect where the money was. By the 19th century there were more theatres in London then anywhere else in Britain, and it has to be said, that without London’s theatres, and the actors they nourished and trained, many of whom ended up working at Stratford – and the money earned from that centralised commercial theatre – British theatre would not, could not have flourished as it did, and survive as it has.

London’s theatres, such as The Theatre Royal Haymarket, set a standard for theatrical productions in Britain, and around the world, that did genuinely make London a centre of excellence.

The first Theatre Royal was built on the site of the old King’s Head pub in 1720 by John Potter, a carpenter who made a fortune staging short comedies, and musical reviews. His theatre was closed down in 1737 after a riot against George II theatre licensing act that threatened to put ticket prices up.

Between 1737 and 1820 the theatre closed and re-opened many times, under various managements, and invariably due to mountains of unpaid bills, and managers who probably ran away with the takings.

In 1821 a wealthy consortium built a brand new theatre on the site, designed by the famous Court Architect, John Nash. This beautiful new theatre had good financial backing, and a management that recognised a winner when it saw one. It went from strength to strength. During the 1850s, and into the 1860s, with John Baldwin Buckstone in control as artistic director, the theatre put on over 200 productions, each of which made good profits. Perhaps the most famous of Buckstone’s productions was Tom Taylor’s Our American Cousin, starring Edward Southern in the role of Lord Dundreary (a name which coined the word ‘dreary’, either because of the nature of Dundreary’s character, or Southern’s acting style) which played for nearly two years – netting a huge £30,000 in profits – before embarking on an international tour.

1873 saw the new concept of the matinee introduced at the theatre, and by 1879, with the theatrical partnership of Squire Bancroft, and his wife, Marie Effie Wilton, now in control the theatre entered a truly golden period.

Although there is no record that Sir Squire (he was knighted in 1897), and Lady Bancroft ever acted at Stratford they were nevertheless great friends of Compton, and Benson, and Sir Henry Irving – who did perform at Stratford – and great supporters of Charles Edward Flowers’ plans for a Stratford theatre. Their support was duly recognised when the gardens in front of the Memorial Theatre (recently re-built) were named after them.

During the 1890s The Theatre Royal Haymarket, produced the early Oscar Wilde comedies, and in the 1930s was a home from home for the aspiring John Gielgud. The theatre prospers to this day, and without a penny of state funding.

Founded in 1818 as the Royal Coburg Theatre, under the patronage of the Prince of Saxe Coburg – and funded by Joseph Glossop, the son of a wealthy Soho merchant – the theatre became a hugely popular spot, but with audiences who were often drunk, and loudly boisterous.

The famous thespian, Edmund Keen – who starred in Richard III, King Lear, and Othello there in 1831 – once told an unruly house that, “…I have played in every major theatre in this land, and in America, and Europe, but I have never acted to such a set of ignorant, unmitigated brutes as I have before me.” It is not recorded how he managed to get off the stage alive.

In 1833 the theatre was re-named The Royal Victorian Theatre in honour of Princess Victoria who had just become heir to the British throne. Charles Dickens was a frequent visitor and his descriptions of theatres in his novels are usually based on ‘The Royal Vic’.

Throughout the 1850s, 1860s, and 1870s the theatre’s reputation as a drunken hell hole overshadowed some very good drama being produced there. By the late 1870s it had closed.

A young, and wealthy social reformer called Emma Cons bought the Old Vic in 1880 and re-opened it as The Royal Victoria Hall & Coffee Tavern, where she held lectures on the perils of the demon drink, and staged plays with a high moral content. She also created an acting academy that became quite influential in creating a much more naturalistic way of performing. Emma died in 1912 and left the theatre to her young niece, Lilian Baylis, who, as a young girl, had tried to teach Mark Twain to play the banjo, and dance. I guess we have to be thankful he stuck to writing.

Lilian carried on the good work of her aunt – although she soon re-introduced a bar, and dropped the lectures – and between 1914, and 1923 produced everyone of Shakespeare’s plays.

She also became infamous for frying sausages in her office with the result that the whole building reeked of the bloody things for years.

In 1924 King George V and Queen Mary became patrons; and in 1929 a very young John Gielgud led the very first Old Vic Company.

In 1933 the Kent born director, Tyrone Guthrie, took over the management of the theatre, bringing Charles Laughton back from Hollywood to lead the company with Flora Robson.

Throughout all of this Lilian had also rebuilt the derelict Sadlers Wells Theatre, and reopened it in 1931, with the ever present John Gielgud starring in Twelfth Night. In the same year The Old Vic/Sadlers Wells Ballet Company was formed, with Ninette de Valois, and her assistant, Frederick Ashton at its head. For several years the two theatres – on different sides of the Thames – alternated between opera, ballet, and drama. In 1935 opera and ballet moved permanently to Sadlers Wells, with drama remaining at The Old Vic on the South Bank.

After Lilian Baylis died in 1937 Guthrie carried on running the theatre until the building was very badly damaged by German bombing in the early days of the blitz. As a result of this the Old Vic Company went on a semi permanent tour of the UK – under a variety of artistic directors – eventually ending up, toward the end of the war, as the resident company of the Liverpool Playhouse.

The Old Vic re-opened its London doors in1950, and between 1953, and 1958 performed the whole cycle of Shakespeare’s First Folio, with a young Judi Dench joining the company in 1957, followed by Maggie Smith in 1962.

The Old Vic has often been described as Britain’s first national theatre, although I would suggest Stratford’s Memorial Theatre was defacto Britain’s first real national theatre from as early as the 1880s.

The Old Vic actually did become the National Theatre in 1963, kicking-off its first season with a splendid production of Hamlet, starring Peter O’Toole – fresh from his cinematic triumph as Lawrence of Arabia – under the leadership of Sir Laurence Olivier.

The National Theatre (now re-christened the Royal National Theatre) eventually moved to its new custom built home – a concrete box hated by many, loved by many more – on the South Bank in 1976, under the often troubled baton of Sir Peter Hall.

Unlike the Theatre Royal Haymarket, the Old Vic always – and no doubt because of its addiction to Shakespeare – found it hard to make ends meet. By the early 1980s it was virtually broke, with little or no hope of financial help from the Arts Council – all their money was going into the RSC, and The National – and was only saved by the financial intervention of the Toronto department store owner, ‘Honest Ed’ Mirvish, who’d previously bought, and restored, Toronto’s Alexandra Theatre. Now, having bought the Old Vic Mirvish spent a further £2.5m on renovating the building, and in 1987 appointed Dr Jonathan Miller as Artistic Director. The idiosyncratic, and verbose Miller stayed until 1990, producing some of the Old Vic’s most prestigious, and memorable shows. But it still didn’t make any money. Mirvish put the theatre back on the market in the 1990s and eventually sold it in 1998 to a consortium called The Old Vic Theatre Trust.

Kevin Spacey was appointed artistic director a handful of years ago, with his work there quite extraordinarily good.

Tyrone Guthrie’s innovative, but criticised work at the Old Vic did not go to waste, and in 1953 he directed experimental open stage versions of Richard III, and All’s Well That Ends Well, at the first Stratford Shakespeare Festival in Ontario. These were, by all accounts, outstanding productions. Guthrie continued to direct at Ontario – alongside their own river Avon – for the next four seasons, helping to firmly establish the festival as a world class event, and helping to ensure that a permanent theatre was built there in 1957. Guthrie’s work was undoubtedly hugely influential in the development of Canadian theatre.

I’ve tried to show a contrast between two of the most famous London theatres as an example of how one, The Theatre Royal Haymarket, can, by staging popular commercial shows – even though they went bust a few times through bad management – make money, while another, the Old Vic, which was dedicated to Shakespeare, could only survive because of the dedication, and wealth, of its quixotic owners.

To Be Continued…