The Stage

RSC scraps demolition plans

Published Tuesday 20 July 2004 at 13:35 by Jeremy Austin

Controversial plans to demolish the Royal Shakespeare Company’s Grade II listed home in Stratford-upon-Avon are no longer being considered, chairman Sir Christopher Bland has stated.

Speaking at the launch of the organisation’s longest London season since it left the Barbican, Bland said that a final decision on what would happen in Stratford would be announced in the autumn. However, he said that while Arts Council England’s £50 million for redevelopment is still available, demolition was a “categorical no”.

“Risking the history of the company and the history of the theatre and the recent history of the row over the demolition of a Grade II listed building by a woman architect, whatever the justification, the obstacles are too great and we are not going to do it,” he said.

Bland’s announcement is confirmation of what many commentators predicted following the replacement during the past two years of the triumvirate that heads the organisation. Project Fleet, as the Stratford plan was dubbed, was the brainchild of former artistic director Adrian Noble, former chairman Bob Alexander and former general manager Christopher Foy. The scheme was always under threat once these three left.

It will be welcome news to the many supporters of the venue, including high profile performers such as Judi Dench, who did not agree with Noble and his colleagues’ assertion that the RST was not popular with performers.

•The Royal Shakespeare Company has announced its return to London for a 22-week season at the Albery Theatre for its first extended season in the capital since April 2002.

The season, starting in November, will see the company present the five tragedies Hamlet, Macbeth, Romeo and Juliet, King Lear and Hecuba, in sequence with a variety of familiar faces including Corin Redgrave, Greg Hicks and Toby Stephens.