RSC CELEBRATES THE LIFE & LEGACY OF ‘TIN HUT REVOLUTIONARY’ BUZZ GOODBODY
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Last week (Thursday 27 August) the Royal Shakespeare Company marked the 80th anniversary of the birth of radical theatre maker Buzz Goodbody; the company’s first female director and visionary director of The Other Place, with a day of specialist talks, and panel discussions reflecting upon her extraordinary life and legacy.
The day-long showcase event, which marked the culmination of the RSC’s 79th annual Summer School, saw RSC alumni and special guests from across the industry come together for a day of inspirational panel discussions reflecting upon Buzz’s contribution to world theatre-making.
Amongst those taking part were author and journalist John Goodbody, brother to Buzz Goodbody, actor Louise Jameson, Honorary Associate Director, Ron Daniels, Director and Associate Artist Elizabeth Freestone and Professor Abigail Rokison-Woodall.
The event also featured a series of talks exploring David Edgar’s seminal 1976 drama Destiny, including a panel discussion on the history of politically engaged theatre making at the RSC, featuring David Edgar, Director Seán Linnen, Penny Cherns and, award-winning Playwright Tanika Gupta. Extracts from Destiny were read by RSC actors, and the original production and BBC Play for Today version were discussed by academic Dr Tom May, RSC director Ron Daniels and television and film director Mike Newell.
In celebration of this important milestone in the history of the RSC, the company also made public Buzz Goodbody’s 1973 Manifesto for the first time. The Buzz Goodbody Manifesto, which is now available to view via the RSC’s website, was written for the then Artistic Director Trevor Nunn and outlines Buzz’s vision for a new, permanent theatre called The Studio in Stratford-upon-Avon. Inspired by the revolutionary spirit of the alternative theatre movements occurring throughout Britain during the 1970s and fuelled by Buzz’s artistic vision, the manifesto sets out Buzz’s ambitions for an experimental theatre space which ran on small production budgets, served the local community and schools and challenged actors with new ways of working.
RSC Co-Artistic Directors Daniel Evans and Tamara Harvey said: “It was a tremendous privilege to welcome colleagues and collaborators from across the sector to celebrate Buzz Goodbody’s extraordinary contribution to the RSC. Under Buzz’s leadership, The Other Place firmly established itself as a home for radical experimentation which served the local community, attracted non-traditional audiences, and created new opportunities for artists. During this time, the venue staged some of the company’s most ground-breaking productions including Buzz’s own Hamlet starring Ben Kingsley and possibly the most famous production of Macbeth from the last century, starring Ian McKellen and Judi Dench, directed by Trevor Nunn. Alongside the classics were works by some of the most exciting contemporary playwrights of the day including David Edgar, Edward Bond Pam Gems, Peter Flannery and Christopher Hampton.
50 years on, Buzz’s ethos, her audience-centered approach to finding new routes into the classics and her passionate commitment to democratising Shakespeare runs through the company’s DNA and continues to inspire new generations of RSC artists and practitioners.”
David Edgar said: “The aim of Destiny was to explore how far-right ideas could gain purchase in Britain less than 30 years after Britain had defeated Hitler. 50 years on, listening to extracts brilliantly read by RSC actors in the new Other Place, the play now feels chillingly prescient, as did Brecht’s anti-fascist satire Arturo Ui, which recently sold-out in the Swan Theatre. Seán Linnen’s production continued the RSC’s long tradition of politically committed plays in its Stratford spaces, including The Other Place. Other recent examples include Tanika Gupta’s play about immigration and Queen Victoria, The Empress, and Joe Murphy and Joe Robertson’s climate change play Kyoto, both in the Swan.
Peter Hall’s founding vision of a company in which Shakespeare would influence new writing and new writing inform productions of Shakespeare combined with Buzz Goodbody’s vision of spare and clear productions appealing to wider audience, is still very much alive and continues to inform the RSC’s work today.”
David Edgar’s Destiny first premiered at The Other Place, Stratford-upon-Avon in September 1976 under RSC Artistic Director Trevor Nunn, with Ian McDiarmid, Michael Pennington, Bob Beck, John Nettles, Greg Hicks and Cherie Lunghi among the cast. The production later transferred to the Aldwych and was subsequently adapted and broadcast by the BBC as a Play for Today.
Widely regarded as one of the most influential political plays of the 1970s, the play explores the increasing influence of the National Front in British politics and was described by The Guardian’s Michael Billington's "a play that is something more than skilful and well-written. It is one that is actually necessary".
About Buzz Goodbody:
Mary Ann 'Buzz' Goodbody was born in Marylebone, London, in 1946, and was known throughout her life by her childhood nickname, reflecting her unquenchable spirit and energy. She was educated at the Roedean girls' school, and soon began showing her rebellious nature, joining the Communist party at age 15.
She studied at Sussex University, where she staged and directed multiple highly regarded productions. This included her adaptation of Dostoyevsky's Notes from the Underground, which won an award at the National Student Drama Festival and was staged at the Garrick Theatre in the West End.
Having been spotted by RSC Co-Founder and Director John Barton's Goodbody joined the Royal Shakespeare Company as his assistant in 1967. Alongside her work with Barton, she also served as a dramaturg for Terry Hands. She officially became an Assistant Director in 1969, the RSC's first female director (perhaps even the UK's first salaried female director).
She directed multiple Shakespeare productions at the Royal Shakespeare Theatre, as well as radical new works, including Trevor Griffiths' Occupations and the controversial play The Oz Trial both in 1971 at The Place in London.
In 1973, Goodbody directed a feminist, modern-dress production of As You Like It at the Royal Shakespeare Theatre. Featuring a rock and roll score and metallic trees, understudy David Suchet ended up taking the role of Orlando opposite Eileen Atkins’ Rosalind after the original actor injured his back.
Today, there is a memorial to Buzz Goodbody in the foyer of The Other Place, which outlines and celebrates her incredible achievements over a life cut tragically short.
The Other Place celebrated its 50th anniversary in 2024 and still honours Goodbody's original vision of a space where new work, new theatre practices and new audiences can come together.
When Goodbody joined the RSC, the company was already pioneering outreach programmes to engage non-traditional theatre audiences. Actors Commando – a group of younger company members acting as a ‘human trailer’ for the theatre – performed condensed productions with minimal props and costumes across east London church halls, canteens and factories.
In 1965, this evolved into Theatregoround, and from 1966 moved to Stratford-upon-Avon, focusing on touring to schools in the West Midlands as well as providing a platform for actors to experiment with different theatre practices.
Following her work on Theatregoround, as well as co-founding the radical Women's Street Theatre Group, the then RSC Artistic Director Trevor Nunn asked Goodbody to head up and put together a vision for the RSC's recently opened The Studio; a small experimental theatre in a former rehearsal room in Stratford-upon-Avon.
In December 1973, Goodbody laid out her manifesto, which made a convincing case for having a permanent RSC studio theatre in Stratford-upon-Avon. She proposed that the new theatre would run on small production budgets, serve the local community including schools and challenge actors with new ways of working. This resulted in the renaming of The Studio to The Other Place in 1974, and the formalisation of the corrugated tin shed as a permanent theatre dedicated to new work and attracting non-traditional audiences.
Goodbody wanted everyone to enjoy Shakespeare and worked relentlessly to create theatre that was inspiring and accessible, fixing ticket prices at 70p and cramming as many theatre-goers onto the bench seating as possible.
Goodbody's first production at The Other Place was King Lear, but it was her 1975 production of Hamlet that made theatre history. According to critics and audiences at the time, her plain clothes, claustrophobic production truly found the essence of the play. With compelling and believable characters, it was ranked as one of the most significant interpretations of the century.
David Edgar
Playwright
David Edgar’s original plays for the RSC include Destiny (winner of the John Whiting award), Maydays (winner of the Plays and Players best play award), Pentecost (winner of the Evening Standard best play award), The Prisoner’s Dilemma, Written on the Heart and The New Real, which was his tenth new play to be produced by the RSC, and his fourth to be premiered at the Other Place. His adaptations for the company are The Jail Diary of Albie Sachs, Nicholas Nickleby (Society of West End Theatres and Tony best play), Dr Jekyll and Mr Hyde and A Christmas Carol. He is an honorary associate artist of the RSC.
His other theatre plays include Death Story, Mary Barnes, Arthur & George (Birmingham Rep); Wreckers (7:84); Our Own People (Pirate Jenny); Teendreams (with Susan Todd, Monstrous Regiment); Entertaining Strangers (1985, Dorchester Community Play and National Theatre); A Time to Keep (with Stephanie Dale, Dorchester Community Play); That Summer (Hampstead Theatre); The Shape of the Table, Albert Speer, Playing with Fire (National Theatre); Daughters of the Revolution and Mothers Against (Oregon Shakespeare Festival/Berkeley Rep); Testing the Echo (Out of Joint); Black Tulips (part of The Great Game, Tricycle Theatre); If Only (Chichester Festival Theatre), and a solo show Trying it On (Warwick Arts Centre, Other Place, Royal Court, Traverse and tour).
David has translated Brecht’s Galileo (Birmingham Rep), Mother Courage (Shakespeare Festival, Stratford Ontario), and Ibsen’s The Master Builder (Chichester Festival Theatre). His television adaptations of stage plays include Baby Love, Destiny, Nicholas Nickleby and The Jail Diary of Albie Sachs; his original television plays include Vote for Them (with Neil Grant), Buying a Landslide and Citizen Locke. His radio adaptations of stage plays include The Shape of the Table, Mary Barnes, That Summer, Entertaining Strangers, Pentecost, Playing with Fire, Maydays and Trying it On. His original radio plays are Ecclesiastes, A Movie Starring Me, Talking to Mars, The Secret Parts, Brave Faces and Something Wrong about the Mouth. He wrote the film Lady Jane.
He wrote How Plays Work (Nick Hern Books) and co-wrote The Little Black Book of National Populism (with Jon Bloomfield). David founded Britain's first MA in Playwriting Studies at the University of Birmingham in 1989. In 2023, he received an outstanding contribution award from the Writers’ Guild of Great Britain, of which he was President from 2007 to 2013.
ENDS
NOTES TO EDITORS
The RSC is supported using public funding by Arts Council England
The work of the RSC is supported by the Culture Recovery Fund
The RSC is generously supported by RSC America
The work of the RSC is generously supported by Backstage Trust
With thanks to Season Supporter Charles Holloway OBE
The RSC Acting Companies are generously supported by The Gatsby Charitable Foundation
