Sir Peter Hall, 1930-2017

Professor Michael Dobson, Director of the Shakespeare Institute, has paid tribute to the late Sir Peter Hall:

"All at the Shakespeare Institute - where his career and achievements in the last 70 years will continue to be extensively studied - are saddened to learn of the death of Sir Peter Hall.

As a director of Shakespeare, he combined a rigorous attention to Shakespeare's text, an attention to social and cultural context (both Shakespeare's and ours), and a flair for sheer theatricality.

His transformation of the Shakespeare Memorial Theatre into the Royal Shakespeare Company in 1961 changed the British theatre forever, producing an organisation committed to an ensemble-based ethic, to political and artistic relevance, and to the highest technical standards of verse-speaking and production.

As neighbours of and collaborators with the RSC and as scholars of Shakespearean performance, we at the Institute are forever in his debt."