Sir Peter Reginald Frederick Hall (22 November 1930 – 11 September 2017) was an English theatre, opera and film director. His obituary inThe Times described him as "the most important figure inBritish theatre for half a century" and on his death, aRoyal National Theatre statement declared that Hall's "influence on the artistic life of Britain in the 20th century was unparalleled". In 2018, theLaurence Olivier Awards, recognising achievements in London theatre, changed the award for Best Director to theSir Peter Hall Award for Best Director.
In 1955, Hall introduced London audiences to the work ofSamuel Beckett with the UK premiere ofWaiting for Godot. Hall founded theRoyal Shakespeare Company and was its director from 1960 to 1968. He went on to build an international reputation in theatre, opera, film and television. He was director of theNational Theatre (1973–88) and artistic director ofGlyndebourne Festival Opera (1984–1990). He formed the Peter Hall Company (1998–2011) and became founding director of theRose Theatre Kingston in 2003. Throughout his career, he was a tenacious champion of public funding for the arts.[1][2]
Whilst studying at Cambridge he produced and acted in a number of plays, directing five in his final year and a further three for The Marlowe Society Summer Festival.[6] He served on theCambridge University Amateur Dramatic Club (CUADC) committee before graduating in 1953. In the same year, Hall staged his first professional play,The Letter byW. Somerset Maugham, at The Theatre Royal Windsor. In 1954 and 1955, Hall was the director of theOxford Playhouse, where he directed several later prominent young actors includingRonnie Barker andBillie Whitelaw.Eileen Atkins andMaggie Smith were also part of the company as acting Assistants Stage Managers.[7]
Hall's many productions for the RSC includedHamlet (1965, withDavid Warner),The Government Inspector (1966, withPaul Scofield), the world premiere of Harold Pinter'sThe Homecoming (1965), andThe Wars of the Roses (1963), adapted withJohn Barton from Shakespeare's history plays. The latter was described as "the greatest Shakespearian event in living memory which also laid down the doctrine of Shakespearian relevance to the modern world".[14] Hall left the RSC in 1968 after almost ten years as its director.
Hall was appointed director of theNational Theatre (NT) in 1973 and led the organisation for fifteen years until 1988. He supervised the move from theOld Vic to the new purpose-built complex on London'sSouth Bank "in the face of wide-spread scepticism and violent union unrest, turning a potential catastrophe into the great success story it remains today."[15] Frustrated by construction delays, Hall decided to move the company into the still-unfinished building and to open it theatre by theatre as each neared completion. Extracts from his production ofTamburlaine the Great withAlbert Finney were performed out on the terraces, free to passers-by.[16]
Hall returned to the NT for the last time in 2011 with a production ofTwelfth Night mounted by the company to celebrate his eightieth birthday. His daughter,Rebecca Hall, playedViola alongside Simon Callow as Sir Toby Belch in the Cottesloe Theatre.
Hall directed extensively in the United States including the world premiere ofJohn Guare'sFour Baboons Adoring the Sun (Lincoln Center, 1992), three Shakespeare plays with Center Theater Group, Los Angeles (1999 and 2001) andJohn Barton's nine-hour epicTantalus (2000), an RSC co-production with theDenver Center for the Performing Arts.[19]
In 2003, Hall became the founding director of The Rose Theatre – a new venue to be constructed in Kingston upon Thames whose design was inspired by the Elizabethan original. He directed a number of productions there including Chekhov'sUncle Vanya, which opened the building in 2008, andA Midsummer Night's Dream (with Judi Dench as Titania, 2010). Hall was also appointed "DirectorEmeritus" of The Rose Kingston.[8]
Peter Hall was also an internationally celebrated opera director. His first experience was in 1957, directingThe Moon and Sixpence byJohn Gardner atSadler's Wells.[20] He was able to play the piano well enough to read opera scores.[20] His first major project was Schoenberg'sMoses und Aron at Covent Garden, which led on to further productions at that house.[20]Hall worked at many of the world's leading houses as well asRoyal Opera House, including theMetropolitan Opera in New York,Houston Grand Opera,[21]Los Angeles Opera,Lyric Opera of Chicago and theBayreuth Festival where he, with conductor Georg Solti, directed Wagner's Ring Cycle (Der Ring des Nibelungen) in 1983 to honour the centenary of the composer's death.[22] The production was played until 1986.[21] Hall staged the world premieres of Michael Tippett'sThe Knot Garden (1970) andNew Year (1989). He had a close relationship with theGlyndebourne Festival where he was artistic director from 1984 to 1990, directing more than twenty productions including the Mozart/Da Ponte operas. His production of Benjamin Britten'sA Midsummer Night's Dream (1981) was revived nine times, most recently 35 years after its premiere, in August 2016.[23] Hall also directedAlbert Herring by Benjamin Britten, Cavalli'sLa Calisto, Monteverdi'sIl ritorno d'Ulisse in patria and Gluck'sOrfeo ed Euridice (all withJanet Baker);L'incoronazione di Poppea andCarmen – both with his then wife,Maria Ewing, with whom he also staged a celebratedSalome (The Royal Opera London and L.A. Opera) in 1986.[24]Opera magazine noted Hall's characteristics as (in relation toLa Cenerentola at Glyndebourne) "dignity and emotional veracity", recalling that "he would always insist that 'the singers, like actors, played off each other'".[20]
Hall's films for cinema and TV includeAkenfield (1974), a fictionalisation based onRonald Blythe's oral history and filmed in Blythe's native Suffolk with a cast of local people. It was restored and relaunched in 2016 by theBFI. Hall's filmShe's Been Away was written byStephen Poliakoff and starredPeggy Ashcroft andGeraldine James who both won awards for their performances at theVenice Film Festival. Hall also directedThe Camomile Lawn andThe Final Passage forChannel 4 television, as well as a number of his opera and stage productions. His only American studio movie, the 1995 erotic thrillerNever Talk to Strangers, "proved to me that I have no aptitude whatever for surviving the Hollywood rat race," as Hall wrote in the updated edition of his memoirMaking an Exhibition of Myself.[25] For several years during the 1970s he presented the arts programmeAquarius for London Weekend Television. In 2005 he was the subject of a two-hour documentary forThe South Bank Show,Peter Hall, Fifty Years in Theatre.
Hall began acting as a student at Cambridge University, whereDadie Rylands taught him to speak Shakespearean verse.[8] He was also influenced in his understanding of Shakespeare by the literary critic and teacherF. R. Leavis.[26] He subsequently acted in three German films in the 1970s:Der Fußgänger (The Pedestrian, directed byMaximilian Schell, 1973),[27]Als Mutter streikte (When Mother Went on Strike, 1974)[28] andDer letzte Schrei (The Last Word, 1974).[29]
His books on theatre includeThe Necessary Theatre (Nick Hern, 1999),Exposed by the Mask (Oberon, 2000) andShakespeare's Advice to the Players (Oberon, 2003).The Peter Hall Diaries – the Story of a Dramatic Battle, edited byJohn Goodwin (Hamish Hamilton) were first published in 1983 and documented his struggle to establish the National Theatre on the South Bank. His autobiography,Making an Exhibition of Myself (Sinclair-Stevenson), was published in 1993.[30]
Hall was married four times. He had six children and nine grandchildren. His first wife was French actressLeslie Caron, with whom he had a son,Christopher, and a daughter,Jennifer. With his second wife, Jacqueline Taylor, he had a son,Edward, and a daughter. Hall married American opera singerMaria Ewing in 1982, with whom he had one daughter,Rebecca. He was lastly married to Nicki Frei; the couple had one daughter, Emma.[8]
Hall worked with all his children:[31] for the National Theatre, Jennifer played Miranda inThe Tempest (1988); Rebecca, aged nine, played young Sophie in the Channel 4 adaptation ofThe Camomile Lawn, for The Peter Hall Company she played Vivie inMrs Warren's Profession (2002), Rosalind inAs You Like It (2003), Maria inGallileo's Daughter (2004) and, for the NT, Viola inTwelfth Night (2011); Emma, aged two, played Joseph inJacob (2004, TV Movie); for the Peter Hall Company, Lucy designedHamlet (1994),Cuckoos (2003) andWhose Life is it Anyway? (2005); Christopher produced the Channel 4 television dramaThe Final Passage (1996); Edward co-directed the stage epicTantalus (2000).
Hall was diagnosed withdementia in 2011 and retired from public life.[32]
Hall was described byGuardian contributorMark Lawson as a "committed atheist, from as early as his 20s", leading "to a punishing work rate in his hurry to get everything done".[9]
His obituary inThe Times declared him "the most important figure inBritish theatre for half a century"[35] and aRoyal National Theatre statement declared that Hall's "influence on the artistic life of Britain in the 20th century was unparalleled".[36]
Many luminaries of British theatre paid tribute to Hall.Nicholas Hytner said: "Without him there would have been no Royal Shakespeare Company."[37]Trevor Nunn said: "Not only a thrilling director, he was the great impresario of the age."[37]Richard Eyre called Hall the "godfather" of British theatre: "Peter created the template of the modern director – part-magus, part-impresario, part-politician, part celebrity."[38] ImpresarioCameron Mackintosh said: "It's thanks to Peter Hall that people like Trevor Nunn, Nicholas Hytner andSam Mendes transformed musical theatre around the world."[39] Theatre criticMichael Coveney said that he believed Hall's production ofThe Wars of the Roses "recast the [Shakespeare] history plays and put them at the centre of our culture".[40]
Peter Brook said: "Peter was a man for all seasons – he could play any part that was needed".Elaine Paige said: "Peter Hall had absolute authority and, as a heavyweight of the theatre, real presence."Griff Rhys Jones said: "Peter was an absolute smoothie, the most charming and diplomatic man" andSamuel West said "Peter was an extraordinarily energetic, imaginative director – if you left him in the corner of a room he'd direct a play – but he was also a great campaigner. He never stopped arguing for the role of subsidised art in a civilised society and its ability to change people's lives."[41]
^Fay, Stephen (1995).Power Play: The Life and Times of Peter Hall. London:Hodder and Stoughton. p. 25.
^Current Biography Yearbook (volume 23). H. W. Wilson. 1963. p. 179.
^Hall, Peter (1993).Making an Exhibition of Myself: the autobiography of Peter Hall. London:Sinclair-Stevenson. p. 36.
^Addenbroke, David (1974).The Royal Shakespeare Company. London: William Kimber & Co. p. 27.
^ab"Sir Peter Hall".The Daily Telegraph. London. 12 September 2017.Archived from the original on 12 January 2022. Retrieved12 September 2017.(subscription required)
^Wardle, Irving (6 January 1991). "Profile of Peter Hall".The Independent on Sunday.
^Spencer, Charles (31 October 2005)."A Titan who Transformed Theatre".The Daily Telegraph. London.Archived from the original on 12 January 2022. Retrieved12 September 2017.
^Rosenthal, Daniel (2013).The National Theatre Story. London:Oberon Books. p. 251.
^Peter Hall (24 August 2005)."Godot almighty".The Guardian. Retrieved26 May 2018.
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