SHAKESPEARE BY MCBEAN
By Adrian Woodhouse
Published 18 October 2018 by Manchester University Press
For sale via the RSC shop https://shop.rsc.org.uk/products/shakespeare-by-mcbean-hb
The celebrated photographer Angus McBean is now best known for his portraits of Vivien Leigh, Audrey Hepburn and The Beatles. However, he always considered that his finest achievement was to record the works of our greatest playwright.
In his forty-year career he captured over 160 different productions of Shakespeare in Stratford-upon-Avon or London and, before his death in 1990, he planned that the best of these photographs should be brought together in print from the archives of the Royal Shakespeare Company.
At last his intention is being fulfilled with a magnificent new book, Shakespeare by McBean. This presents a dazzling array of the photographer’s trademark glamorous images when working at the Stratford theatre between 1945-1962, long regarded as a golden era in British acting. The book includes every one of Shakespeare’s 37 plays and all the period’s greatest theatrical names – Olivier, Gielgud, Scofield, Burton, Quayle, Redgrave, Richardson, Ashcroft and Evans – are represented in some of their most famous performances along with actors then starting their careers like Diana Rigg and Peter O’Toole.
Many of the 350 pictures, chosen mostly by McBean himself on his last visit to Stratford with his friend and biographer, Adrian Woodhouse, are previously unpublished and include over 50 of his beautiful and surprising 1950s colour images. To go with the photographs Woodhouse affectionately chronicles McBean’s roller-coaster life and career while also celebrating the craft of acting, costume and theatre design at what is now the Royal Shakespeare Company.
As RSC Artistic Director Gregory Doran notes in the book’s introduction, the wealth of theatrical trivia in the “effortlessly knowledgeable” text of Shakespeare by McBean ensures that the larger than life personalities and classical acting talents of Stratford’s post-war decades are brought vividly into focus. The reader is taken, thanks to the camera of one of the country’s greatest theatre photographers, on a remarkable journey through the changing fashions of Shakespeare productions in McBean’s time.
Adrian Woodhouse is a decorative art historian. His first book on Angus McBean came out in 1982 when he was still a Fleet Street gossip columnist and his full-length biography, Angus McBean: Facemaker, was published in 2006.
He has a particular connection to the RSC: it introduced him to McBean’s photographic genius when he first visited the RSC as a nine-year-old in 1961 – to see Geraldine McEwan and Christopher Plummer play Beatrice and Benedick in Much Ado About Nothing – and fell in love with the large framed McBean images which then used to decorate its public spaces. Five years later he was the last boy to play a Shakespearean heroine at his Gloucestershire school when he took the part of Beatrice and wore a costume hired from the RSC originally designed by Spanish artist Mario Andreu for actress Diana Wynyard in John Gielgud’s hugely successful 1949 production of Much Ado. (The costume as worn by Wynyard can be seen in Shakespeare by McBean.)
Shakespeare By McBean –
5 – 6pm, Friday 19 October at The Other Place, Stratford-upon-Avon
Join us for an exclusive conversation to celebrate the publication of the book, which will be available to buy at the event. Speakers include Adrian Woodhouse, who will be signing copies, and RSC Artistic Director, Gregory Doran.
Tickets are £5 and booking opens for Patrons, Members and Subscribers on Monday 10 September, with public booking opening on Monday 17 September.
To find out more and to book: www.rsc.org.uk/events/shakespeare-by-mcbean
For further information, please contact Philippa.harland@rsc.org.uk or 020 7845 0512
Publicity images from the book, including the front cover artwork, are available on request from Dean Asker on dean.asker@rsc.org.uk or 01789 412660.
For information on the RSC image archive and licensing opportunities https://www.rsc.org.uk/image-licensing/
NOTES TO EDITORS
The RSC Acting Companies are generously supported by THE GATSBY CHARITABLE FOUNDATION and THE KOVNER FOUNDATION
About the Royal Shakespeare Company
The Royal Shakespeare Company creates theatre at its best, made in Stratford-upon-Avon and shared around the world. We produce an inspirational artistic programme each year, setting Shakespeare in context, alongside the work of his contemporaries and today’s writers.
Everyone at the RSC - from actors to armourers, musicians to technicians - plays a part in creating the world you see on stage. All our productions begin life at our Stratford workshops and theatres and we bring them to the widest possible audience through our touring, residencies, live broadcasts and online activity. So wherever you experience the RSC, you experience work made in Shakespeare’s home town.
We have trained generations of the very best theatre makers and we continue to nurture the talent of the future. We encourage everyone to enjoy a lifelong relationship with Shakespeare and live theatre. We reach 530,000 children and young people annually through our education work, transforming their experiences in the classroom, in performance and online. Registered charity no. 212481 www.rsc.org.uk.
Arts Council England is the national development body for arts and culture across England, working to enrich people’s lives. We support a range of activities across the arts, museums and libraries – from theatre to visual art, reading to dance, music to literature, and crafts to collections. Great art and culture inspires us, brings us together and teaches us about ourselves and the world around us. In short, it makes life better. Between 2018 and 2022, we will invest £1.45 billion of public money from government and an estimated £860 million from the National Lottery to help create these experiences for as many people as possible across the country. www.artscouncil.org.uk