Russell Jackson is Emeritus Professor of Drama at the University of Birmingham, UK. His work focuses on the relationships between text and performance - particularly but not exclusively of Shakespeare’s plays - in their social and intellectual context and in a wide range of media. He is currently engaged in studies of the representation of the theatre in the other arts.

I trust Jackson’s reading of that production’s theatrical signals more than I trust my own, in large part because he saw most of the productions he writes about several times, watching as the director made them tighter, deeper, and more finely detailed. Jackson extensively and meticulously documents every production’s design features, acting choices, and critical reception. But I would just as soon forego the documentation and trust Jackson’s memory, his powers of description, and his ability to get to the heart of each production’s aesthetic. Jackson’s book, like Nunn’s aesthetic, is conceptually tight, interpretively deep, and intricately detailed.

• List of IllustrationsAcknowledgementsA Note on the TextSeries PrefacePrefaceIntroduction: ‘controlled flamboyance’ and Leavisite analysis1: The Main Stage at Stratford, 1968-722: The Main Stage at Stratford – after the ‘Romans’3: Chamber Shakespeare at the Other Place4: The National Theatre and beyondAppendix: Shakespeare Productions directed by Trevor Nunn at the RSC and the National TheatreNotesBibliographyIndex

Russell Jackson is Emeritus Professor of Drama at the University of Birmingham, UK. His work focuses on the relationships between text and performance - particularly but not exclusively of Shakespeare’s plays - in their social and intellectual context and in a wide range of media. He is currently engaged in studies of the representation of the theatre in the other arts.

I trust Jackson’s reading of that production’s theatrical signals more than I trust my own, in large part because he saw most of the productions he writes about several times, watching as the director made them tighter, deeper, and more finely detailed. Jackson extensively and meticulously documents every production’s design features, acting choices, and critical reception. But I would just as soon forego the documentation and trust Jackson’s memory, his powers of description, and his ability to get to the heart of each production’s aesthetic. Jackson’s book, like Nunn’s aesthetic, is conceptually tight, interpretively deep, and intricately detailed.

• List of IllustrationsAcknowledgementsA Note on the TextSeries PrefacePrefaceIntroduction: ‘controlled flamboyance’ and Leavisite analysis1: The Main Stage at Stratford, 1968-722: The Main Stage at Stratford – after the ‘Romans’3: Chamber Shakespeare at the Other Place4: The National Theatre and beyondAppendix: Shakespeare Productions directed by Trevor Nunn at the RSC and the National TheatreNotesBibliographyIndex