John Barton (director) - Royal Shakespeare Company

Royal Shakespeare Company

In 1960, along with Peter Hall, he co-founded the Royal Shakespeare Company where Barton was an active director for over 40 years. He has directed over 50 productions either on his own or as a collaborator with Sir Peter Hall and Trevor Nunn. Some landmark productions at RSC include 1969's Twelfth Night with Judi Dench as Viola, and the 1963/1964 sequence of Histories (with Peter Hall and Clifford Williams). In the RSC's 50th anniversary commemorations (2011) Barton's teaching is acknowledged as one of the lasting reasons for the company's success and he is regarded as one of the most influential directors of Shakespeare of his time.

At the Aldwych Theatre in London in 1980, Barton directed The Greeks, his adaptations (with playwright Kenneth Cavander) from Homer, Euripides, Aeschylus and Sophocles, ten plays centering on the Oresteia legend, presented in the terse style of the original verse. This was part of an RSC London season which also embraced Trevor Nunn and John Caird's production of David Edgar's eight-hour adaptation of Nicholas Nickleby. "Both projects were daunting undertakings, planned at a time of renewed financial crisis, and both proved remarkably successful.": Sally Beauman in her book The Royal Shakespeare Company: A History of Ten Decades.

In 1980, Barton, while working with 21 RSC company members, including Judi Dench, Ian McKellen, Patrick Stewart and Ben Kingsley, recorded nine workshop sessions for London Weekend Television by the RSC. These programs were aired that year and became the source of his best-selling book, Playing Shakespeare; a popular guide and tool used by many actors who are working with and training in Shakespeare. They are now available on DVD.

He is quoted in an article by Michael Billington as saying, "I... think the success or failure of the RSC depends on the quality of the actors. If I've learned anything in my time, it is that if you get the right combination of actors, a production will generally work... But one should always remember that no theatre company is immortal and Zeus could still chuck a thunderbolt at any moment."

Barton possesses an encyclopaedic knowledge of Shakespeare and is known to be able to identify one of his plays from a single line of text. He is a legend in the classical theatre world, rumoured to have chewed razor blades during long rehearsals early in his career. A story is told of Barton getting so into his directorial work giving notes one night, that he fell into the orchestra pit, climbed out, and dusted himself off before resuming. A great deal of the success of RSC is attributed to Barton and his unrivalled wisdom of language, verse and character.

Barton still holds these workshops and even conducts Master Classes at BADA (British American Drama Academy) during their Summer in Oxford training programs. He was awarded the 2001 Sam Wanamaker Prize.