John Barton (director)

John Bernard Adie Barton (born November 26, 1928 in London, England) is a theatrical director. He is the son of Sir Harold Montagu and Lady Joyce (nee Wale) Barton. He married Anne Righter, a university lecturer, in 1968.

Barton was educated at Eton College and King's College, Cambridge and while at Cambridge directed and acted in many productions for the Marlowe Society and the ADC. At the Westminster Theatre in July 1953 he directed his first London production, "Henry V" for the Elizabethan Theatre Company. He created a 12-part series for BBC radio on the medieval Mysteries, inspired by the Norse Sagas.

In 1960, along with Peter Hall, he co-founded the Royal Shakespeare Company where Barton has been 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 1970's "A Midsummer Night's Dream" with Patrick Stewart as Oberon. Currently, he serves at the RSC as Company Advisory Director.

At the Aldwych Theatre in London in 1980, Barton directed "The Greeks", his own adaptations from Homer, Euripides, Aeschylus and Sophocles, ten plays centring on the Oresteia legend. 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 1982, 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 recordings were aired in 1984 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.

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 encyclopedic 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 theater world, rumored 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 unrivaled 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.

Filmography

1984 - Playing Shakespeare (TV - Special)

As writer:

*1965 - "War of the Roses" (TV)
*1970 - "Hallmark Hall of Fame" - "Hamlet" (adaptation) (TV)
*1984 - "Morte d'Arthur" (adaptation) (TV)
*1991 - "The War That Never Ends" (TV)

As director:

*1965 - "War of the Roses" (TV)
*1968 - "All's Well That Ends Well" (TV)

As actor:

*1984 - "Morte d'Arthur" - Sir Thomas Malory

References

*"The Royal Shakespeare Company: A History of Ten Decades" by Sally Beauman, Oxford (1982) ISBN 0192122096
*"Who's Who In the Theatre", 17th edition; Volume 1, ed. Ian Herbert, Gale (1981) ISBN 0810302357 (Barton's own CV, p. 47).

Bibliography

*Barton, John. "Playing Shakespeare". London: Methuen, 1984.

*Greenwald, Michael L. "Directions by Indirections (John Barton of the Royal Shakespeare Company)". Cranbury: Associated University Press, 1985

*Billington, Michael. 'George Galloway? He's a brilliant Shakespearean.' Guardian Unlimited. February, 2006. [http://arts.guardian.co.uk/critic/feature/0,,1703973,00.html]

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