Shakespeare’s custodian
JOHN Barton, co- founder of the Royal Shakespeare Company, has died. He was 89.
Barton co- founded the iconic theatre company in 1960 and spent the rest of his career with the group.
He was “simply one of the greatest influences in the acting of Shakespeare of the last century,” RSC artistic director Gregory Doran said.
Barton directed many classic plays and taught generations of actors how to approach Shakespeare’s works.
Mr Doran said Barton had a rare “ability to uncover the clues that Shakespeare wrote into the text to enable actors to deliver it with freshness and vivid clarity”.
“But perhaps John’s greatest influence on the company, and hence to the profession, was his passion for the verse.”
Barton’s “Playing Shakespeare” workshops were often shown on TV. He was known to possess an encyclopaedic knowledge of Shakespeare’s works, and was able to identify a play from a single line of text.
Barton collaborated with his co- founder, the late Sir Peter Hall, on the influential The Wars of the Roses in 1963 and directed Twelfth Night, Much Ado About Nothing, Love’s Labour’s Lost and others, working with Judi Dench, Donald Sinden, Patrick Stewart and other stalwart British actors.
Sir Patrick said it was with “great sadness” that he learned of Barton’s death.
The pair worked together on The Merchant of Venice in 1978.