My first experience of RSC performances gave me a love of Shakespeare’s plays and his use of language - Anne Crichton, Member

I first went to Stratford in 1961 when I was 16.  My mother knew an actor, Michael Murray, who was in the company and arranged tickets for us to see the season, apart from Othello which opened in September.  The emphasis on clear, natural verse speaking and lively productions made the plays a fresh and exciting experience.  My mother said until then she had always found Shakespeare hard going and tedious.  Mike introduced us to Ian Bannen (Hamlet, Orlando, Mercutio and Iago).  He had a charismatic stage presence and also became a family friend who gave me away at my wedding in 1972.  Mike also introduced us to Cherry Morris, whom he later married and in due course my mother became their daughter’s godmother.  Cherry was a lovely person and a gifted actress and I was able to live with them in Exeter when we were all in the Northcott Theatre Company in 1967 and I was a lowly ASM. On the Friday morning of that week in 1961, when apparently the actors’ wives and children would come in to collect their wages, we were having coffee in the Green Room when Edith Evans (Nurse) came and sat beside me.  I was awestruck, unable to speak, but watching the children running around she announced to the room in general that when she had been a toddler her mother nearly trod on her as she descended a ladder after hanging curtains and Edith had climbed up after her.  An aunt’s shouted warning saved young Edith from calamity.  No-one in the Green Room reacted, or took any notice.  Dame Edith finished her coffee and rose, magnificent in a shocking pink suit with a scarf over her curlers, and left the room.  I kicked myself for missing the opportunity to speak to her. We went back to Stratford many times to see the plays or caught up with them in London.  The Company system made it fascinating to see an actor’s versatility in different plays and to watch their careers develop over the years.  My first experience of RSC performances gave me a love of Shakespeare’s plays and his use of language.  Non Shakespeare productions were always eagerly awaited too and other writers were explored with the same revelatory attention to detail and context. I have been to a Stratford week, fitting in every production, many times with my husband or daughter and would like to praise the Box Office staff who were always wonderfully helpful and patient in juggling dates and tickets so that we could see as much as possible.