Will Waspe
The justification for having in London such lavishly subsidised theatre companies as the National Theatre, the Royal Shakespeare Company and the English Stage Company at the Royal Court rests largely on their each pursuing clearly defined policies and maintaining fully separate identities. I am sorry to see the lines between them becoming blurred.
To some extent this is due to the somewhat ambiguous position of Peter Hall — now Director of the National but formerly head man at the RSC and still 'Consultant Director' there — who has been unable to resist raiding the RSC on behalf of the National. The latest 'associate artist' of the RSC to move over to the National is Susan Fleetwood (who will play Pegeen Mike in The Playboy of the Western World for the National in October), following Peggy Ashcroft, Colin Blakely, Patience Collier, Diana Rigg, Paul Rogers and others. And, of course, the PR department at the National is staffed almost wholly by former RSC personnel, But it isn't all a one-way traffic. Last week's new RSC production, Jingo, starred Anna Massey, who has just left Heartbreak House at the National; and the play is by Charles Wood, who has previously written for both the National and the Royal Court. Meanwhile, the Royal Court itself has booked another RSC 'associate artist', Helen Mirren, and former National players Constance Cummings and Michael Hordern for forthcoming plays.
It is not so long ago that the ubiquitous Lord Goodman was conducting semi-secret exploratory discussions on a National-RSC merger, which has seemed to have been a non-starter. It would be too bad if a merger of the two, plus the English Stage Company, were to come about by default; or if the present interchange of personnel and talent among them all made it a matter or no consequence whether they merged or not.
Prospective link-up?
Suggestions that John Daly and Derek Dawson, the two millionaire Cockney boys in charge at Hemdale when David Frost's Jim Slater-backed Equity Enterprises moved in, might buy out Equity's 'leisure' interests (i.e. virtually their old Hemdale set-up) seem to be coming to naught. Dealings in Equity shares have been suspended these past few months while negotiations have been in progress. What seems more likely now, however, is that there will be ,a link-up between Equity and another big showbusiness company, the Robert Stigwood outfit. The two have already had profitable collaborations on such things as the film, Tommy, produced by the one, marketed by the other.
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