Royal Court Theatre
Past display archive
25 January - 2 July 2006
Balcony Gallery
Free
John Osborne
by Mark Gerson
1957
NPG x20115
To celebrate the Royal Court Theatre's 50th anniversary in April 2006, a new display at the National Portrait Gallery shows photographs of actors, directors and writers who have enjoyed a close association with a company renowned for its commitment to new writing and for premiering some of the seminal plays of the last fifty years.
Since 1956 the Royal Court has staged more than 800 plays. Royal Court Theatre: A Celebration of Fifty Years draws exclusively from the Gallery's own Collection. Portraits on display range from Ida Kar's photograph of first artistic director George Devine in 1958 to one of today's leading stage-and-screen actresses Sophie Okonedo by Sal Idriss in 2002. In between, are classic studies of Harold Pinter by Bill Brandt, Jonathan Pryce by Snowdon, Arnold Wesker by Cecil Beaton and Joe Orton by Lewis Morley.
The English Stage Company at the Royal Court was Britain's first national theatre company. Its first production, opening on 2 April 1956, was Angus Wilson's The Mulberry Bush. Founder director George Devine set out to produce serious theatre and to stimulate new writing, presenting "new works as if they were classics, and classics as if they were new works". The company gave British premières of work by Brecht, Beckett, Ionesco, Sartre and Wedekind.
The play that is most closely associated with the early days of the Royal Court and that revolutionised British theatre was John Osborne's Look Back in Anger (premiered 8 May 1956). Osborne is represented in the display by a 1957 portrait by Mark Gerson. Royal Court Theatre: A Celebration of Fifty Years can be seen alongside the display The Royal Ballet at 75 (from 14 January 2006) at the National Portrait Gallery which celebrates its 150th anniversary in 2006.
Related portraits
- Jocelyn Herbert (NPG P1072)
- William Gaskill (NPG P1102)
- Shelagh Delaney (NPG P45)
- Laurence Olivier (NPG P596)
- Lindsay Anderson (NPG P1042)
- Jonathan Pryce (NPG P835)
- Samuel Beckett (NPG P157)
- Joan Plowright (NPG x68282)
- John Osborne (NPG x32734)
- George Devine (NPG x88933)
- Peter Gill (NPG x128131)
- Billie Whitelaw (NPG x46680)
- John Arden (NPG x4054)
- (Patricia) Ann Jellicoe (NPG x4053)
- Tony Richardson (NPG x4059)
- Albert Finney (NPG x14075)
- Sir Arnold Wesker (NPG x14240)
- Joe Orton (NPG x24966)
- Penelope Wilton (NPG x68297)
- Tim Curry (NPG x68292)
- Rita Tushingham (NPG x165754)
- Christopher Hampton (NPG x4042)
- Oscar Lewenstein (NPG x20070)
- Stephen Frears (NPG x25246)
- Lindsay Duncan (NPG x35172)
- Helen Mirren (NPG x76966)
- Caryl Churchill (NPG x31015)
- Richard O'Brien (NPG x76654)
- Sir Alan Bates (NPG x35359)
- John Mortimer (NPG x35173)
- Antony Sher; Philip Hedley (NPG x35290)
- Juliet Stevenson (NPG x36296)
- Paul Scofield (NPG x77021)
- Richard Wilson (NPG x76771)
- Katrin Cartlidge (NPG x126210)
- Sarah Kane (NPG x128061)
- Mark Ravenhill (NPG x88572)
- Sophie Okonedo (NPG x125670)
- Sir David Hare (NPG x128063)
- Harold Pinter (NPG x22457)
Related sitters
- Lindsay Gordon Anderson
- John Arden
- Sir Alan Arthur Bates
- Samuel Barclay Beckett
- Katrin Cartlidge
- Caryl Churchill
- Timothy James ('Tim') Curry
- Shelagh Delaney
- George Alexander Cassady Devine
- Lindsay Vere Duncan
- Albert Finney
- Stephen Arthur Frears
- William Gaskill
- Peter Gill
- Sir Christopher James Hampton
- Sir David Hare
- Philip Hedley
- Jocelyn Herbert
- (Patricia) Ann Jellicoe
- Sarah Kane
- Oscar Lewenstein
- Dame Helen Mirren
- Sir John Clifford Mortimer
- Richard O'Brien
- Sophie Okonedo
- Laurence Kerr Olivier, Baron Olivier
- John Kingsley ('Joe') Orton
- John James Osborne
- Harold Pinter
- Dame Joan Ann Plowright (Lady Olivier)
- Jonathan Pryce
- Mark Ravenhill
- Cecil Antonio ('Tony') Richardson
- (David) Paul Scofield
- Sir Antony Sher
- Juliet Anne Virginia Stevenson
- Rita Tushingham
- Sir Arnold Wesker
- Billie Whitelaw
- (Iain) Richard Wilson
- Penelope Alice Wilton
Related artists
- Godfrey Argent
- Robin Barton
- Cecil Beaton
- Colin Bell
- Callum Bibby
- Jane Bown
- Bill Brandt
- John Vere Brown
- Chris Clunn
- Neil Drabble
- Jillian Edelstein
- Nicholas Elder
- Duncan Fraser
- Mark Gerson
- James F. Hunkin
- Sal Idriss
- Paul Joyce
- Ida Kar
- Trevor Leighton
- Jorge ('J.S.') Lewinski
- Sandra Lousada
- Roger Mayne
- Lewis Morley
- Alistair Morrison
- Arnold Newman
- Irving Penn
- Antony Charles Robert Armstrong Jones, 1st Earl of Snowdon
- Mark Tillie
- Michael Ward
- Liam Woon