# Drama at the Edinburgh International Festival: history and repertoire, 1957–1966

Drama remained an important part of the Edinburgh International Festival during its second decade. Almost all performances took place at the Royal Lyceum Theatre, The Assembly Hall, and the former Gateway Theatre.
More than 15 companies appeared during the decade, of which the most prolific were the London-based Old Vic Company and English Stage Company, the Royal Shakespeare Company from Stratford-upon-Avon, and the Edinburgh Gateway Company.

## List

| Date | Company | Drama | Venue | Director | Principal actors |
| 1957 | The English Stage Company | Nekrassov (Jean-Paul Sartre) | Royal Lyceum Theatre | George Devine | Robert Helpmann, Harry Corbett, George Benson |
| 1957 | Henry Sherek | Man of Distinction (Walter Hasenclever) | Royal Lyceum Theatre | Denis Carey | Anton Walbrook, Moira Shearer, Eric Porter, Peter Bull, John Warner, Aubrey Richards, Prunella Scales |
| 1957 | Compagnie Madeleine Renaud Jean-Louis Barrault | La Répétition ou l'Amour puni (Jean Anouilh) | Royal Lyceum Theatre | Jean-Louis Barrault | Madeleine Renaud, Jean-Louis Barrault, Pierre Bertin, Gabriel Cattand |
| 1957 | Jean-Louis Barrault | Connaissance de Claudel | Royal Lyceum Theatre | Jean-Louis Barrault | Jean-Louis Barrault, |
| 1957 | Stephen Mitchell | The Hidden King (Jonathan Griffin) | The Assembly Hall | Christopher West | Robert Eddison, Robert Speaight, Michael MacLiammoir, Sebastian Shaw, Ernest Thesiger |
| 1957 | Edinburgh Gateway Company | The Flouers o Edinburgh (Robert McLellan) | Gateway Theatre | James Gibson | Lennox Milne, Duncan Macrae |
| 1957 | John Gielgud | The Ages of Man (William Shakespeare, anthology by George Rylands) | Freemasons' Hall | | John Gielgud |
| 1958 | Henry Sherek | The Elder Statesman (T. S. Eliot) | Royal Lyceum Theatre | E. Martin Browne | Paul Rogers, Anna Massey, William Squire, Eileen Peel, Richard Gale, Alec McCowen, Dorothea Phillips,Geoffrey Kerr |
| 1958 | Ulster Theatre Group | The Bonefire (Gerard McLarnon) | Royal Lyceum Theatre | Tyrone Guthrie | Colin Blakely, J. G. Devlin, James Ellis, Harold Goldblatt, Denys Hawthorne |
| 1958 | New Watergate Theatre Club | Long Day's Journey into Night (Eugene O'Neill) | Royal Lyceum Theatre | José Quintero | Ian Bannen, Gwen Ffrangcon Davies, Anthony Quayle |
| 1958 | The Old Vic Company | Twelfth Night (William Shakespeare) | Royal Lyceum Theatre | Michael Benthall | Joss Ackland, Peter Cellier, James Culliford, Judi Dench, Jane Downs, Gerald Harper, Barbara Jefford, John Neville, Richard Wordsworth |
| 1958 | The Old Vic Company | Mary Stuart (Friedrich Schiller) | The Assembly Hall | Peter Wood | Dennis Chinnery, James Culliford,Derek Francis, Edward Hardwicke, Barrie Ingham, Catherine Lacey, Ronald Lewis, Jack May, John Phillips, Irene Worth |
| 1958 | Edinburgh Gateway Company | Weir of Hermiston (R. J. B. Sellar), adapted from Robert Louis Stevenson | Gateway Theatre | Brian Carey | Pamela Bain, Tom Fleming, Lennox Milne, William Simpson, Frank Wylie |
| 1959 | The Old Vic Company | The Double Dealer (William Congreve) | Royal Lyceum Theatre | Michael Benthall | Donald Houston, John Justin, John Woodvine, Joss Ackland, Alec McCowen, Miles Malleson, Ursula Jeans, Judi Dench, Moyra Fraser, Maggie Smith |
| 1959 | Birmingham Repertory Theatre Company | Gammer Gurton's Needle (1575) and Fratricide Punished | Royal Lyceum Theatre | Bernard Hepton | |
| 1959 | The English Stage Company | Cock-a-Doodle Dandy (Seán O'Casey) | Royal Lyceum Theatre | George Devine | Berto Pasuka, J. G. Devlin, Wilfred Lawson, Pauline Flanagan, Joan O'Hara, Etain O'Dell, Eamon Keane |
| 1959 | Wharton Productions Ltd | Ane Satyre of the Thrie Estaites (Sir David Lindsay) | The Assembly Hall | Tyrone Guthrie | Duncan Macrae, Bryden Murdoch, Eric Woodburn, Andrew Keir, John Cairney, Tom Fleming, Roddy McMillan, Walter Carr |
| 1959 | The Perth Theatre Company | Breakspear in Gascony (Eric Linklater) | Gateway Theatre | Julian Herington | Christopher Burgess |
| 1959 | The Dundee Repertory Company | Candida (George Bernard Shaw) | Gateway Theatre | Raymond Westwell | Rowena Cooper, Raymond Westwell |
| 1959 | The Glasgow Citizens' Theatre | The Baikie Charivari (James Bridie) | Gateway Theatre | Peter Duguid | Ian Cuthbertson |
| 1960 | | The Wallace (Sydney Goodsir Smith) | The Assembly Hall | Peter Potter | Iain Cuthbertson |
| 1960 | The Old Vic Company | The Seagull (Anton Chekhov) | Royal Lyceum Theatre | John Fernald | Judith Anderson, Ann Bell, Tony Britton, Tom Courtenay |
| 1960 | La Compagnie Roger Planchon | Les Trois Mousquetaires (Dumas) | Royal Lyceum Theatre | Roger Planchon | Roger Planchon |
| 1960 | Lynoq Productions | The Dream of Peter Mann (Bernard Kops) | Royal Lyceum Theatre | Frank Dunlop | Hermione Baddeley, Robert Hardy |
| 1960 | The Glasgow Citizens' Theatre | Romulus the Great (Friedrich Dürrenmatt translated by Nell Moody) | Gateway Theatre | Callum Mill | Joe Greig |
| 1960 | Edinburgh Gateway Company | Mary Stuart in Scotland (B Bjørnson translated by Elizabeth Sprigge) | Gateway Theatre | Richard Mathews | |
| 1961 | The Old Vic Company | Doctor Faustus (Christopher Marlowe) | The Assembly Hall | Michael Benthall | Paul Daneman, Michael Goodliffe, Walter Hudd |
| 1961 | The Old Vic Company | King John (William Shakespeare) | The Assembly Hall | Peter Potter | Maurice Denham, Paul Daneman |
| 1961 | The English Stage Company and Oscar Lewenstein | Luther (John Osborne) | Empire Theatre | Tony Richardson | Albert Finney |
| 1961 | The Old Vic Company | Sappho (Lawrence Durrell) | Royal Lyceum Theatre | John Hale | Margaret Rawlings |
| 1961 | Jan de Blieck and L'Association Française d'Action Artistique | Le Misanthrope (Molière) | Royal Lyceum Theatre | Bernard Dhéran | Bernard Dhéran |
| 1961 | Jan de Blieck and L'Association Française d'Action Artistique | Jean de la Lune (Marcel Achard) | Royal Lyceum Theatre | Bernard Dhéran | Bernard Dhéran |
| 1961 | The English Stage Company | August for the People (Nigel Dennis) | Royal Lyceum Theatre | George Devine | Rex Harrison |
| 1961 | Edinburgh Gateway Company | Let Wives Tak' Tent (Robert Kemp after Molière) | Gateway Theatre | Tom Fleming | Duncan Macrae |
| 1962 | Royal Shakespeare Company | Troilus and Cressida (William Shakespeare) | Royal Lyceum Theatre | Peter Hall | Max Adrian, Ian Holm, Dorothy Tutin, Derek Godfrey, John Nettleton, Maxine Audley |
| 1962 | Royal Shakespeare Company | The Devils (John Whiting) | Royal Lyceum Theatre | Peter Wood | Max Adrian, Dorothy Tutin, Richard Johnson, Marian Diamond |
| 1962 | Royal Shakespeare Company | Curtmantle (Christopher Fry) | Royal Lyceum Theatre | Stuart Burge | Maxine Audley, Derek Godfrey, Alan Dobie |
| 1962 | Garvase Fajeon and Richard O'Donoghue | The Doctor and the Devils (Dylan Thomas) | The Assembly Hall | Callum Mill | Leonard Maguire |
| 1962 | Edinburgh Gateway Company | Young Auchinleck (Robert McLellan) | Gateway Theatre | Kenneth Parrott | John Cairney |
| 1963 | Frith Banbury | The Unshaven Cheek (Ray Lawler) | Royal Lyceum Theatre | Frith Banbury | |
| 1963 | The 59 Theatre Company | When We Dead Awaken (Henrik Ibsen translated by Michael Meyer) | Royal Lyceum Theatre | | |
| 1963 | The English Stage Company | The Ceremony (Ionesco, translated by Donald Watson) | Royal Lyceum Theatre | | Alec Guinness |
| 1963 | Marlan Productions | The Rabbit Race (Martin Walser, translated by Ronald Duncan) | The Assembly Hall | | |
| 1963 | Chichester Festival Theatre | Saint Joan (George Bernard Shaw) | The Assembly Hall | | |
| 1963 | Edinburgh Gateway Company | All in Good Faith (Roddy MacMillan) | Gateway Theatre | | |
| 1964 | Michael White | Hamp (John Wilson, based on a story by J L Hodson) | Royal Lyceum Theatre | John Gibson | John Hurt, Malcolm Tierney, Richard Briers, Leonard Rossiter, Noel Coleman |
| 1964 | Theatre Workshop | Henry IV, Part 1, Henry IV, Part 2 (adapted from William Shakespeare) | The Assembly Hall | Joan Littlewood | George Sewell, John Antrobus, Julian Glover |
| 1964 | Bristol Old Vic Company | Henry V (William Shakespeare) | Royal Lyceum Theatre | Stuart Burge | Richard Pasco |
| 1964 | Bristol Old Vic Company | Love's Labour's Lost (William Shakespeare) | Royal Lyceum Theatre | Val May | David Dodimead, Richard Pasco, Michael Jayston, Peter Baldwin |
| 1964 | Edinburgh Gateway Company | The Golden Legend of Shults (James Bridie) | Gateway Theatre | Victor Carin | Alex McAvoy |
| 1965 | Haizlip and Stoiber Productions | The Amen Corner (James Baldwin) | Royal Lyceum Theatre | Lloyd G Richards | Claudia McNeil, Antonio Fargas, Julius W Harris |
| 1965 | Il Teatro Stabile di Genova | I Due Gemelli Veneziani (Carlo Goldoni) | Royal Lyceum Theatre | Luigi Squarzina | Alberto Lionello |
| 1965 | Peter Bridge | Too True to Be Good (George Bernard Shaw) | Royal Lyceum Theatre | Frank Dunlop | Dora Bryan, George Cole, Kenneth Haigh, June Ritchie, Athene Seyler, Alastair Sim |
| 1965 | Traverse Festival Productions | Macbeth (William Shakespeare) | Assembly Hall | Michael Geliot | |
| 1965 | Edinburgh Gateway Company | The Man from Thermopylae (Ada F. Kay) | Gateway Theatre | Richard Matthews | |
| 1966 | Royal Lyceum Theatre Company | The Burdies (Adaptation by Douglas Young of the play by Aristophanes) | Royal Lyceum Theatre | Tom Fleming | Callum Mill, Harry Walker |
| 1966 | Piraikon Theatron | Electra (Sophocles) | Royal Lyceum Theatre | Dimitrios Rondiris | |
| 1966 | Piraikon Theatron | Medea (Euripides) | Royal Lyceum Theatre | Dimitrios Rondiris | |
| 1966 | Michael Codron | A Present from the Past (John Hailstone) | Royal Lyceum Theatre | Robert Chetwyn | Renée Asherson, Gwen Ffrangcon-Davies |
| 1966 | Pop Theatre | The Winter's Tale (William Shakespeare) | The Assembly Hall | Frank Dunlop | Lawrence Harvey, David Sumner, Moira Redmond |
| 1966 | Pop Theatre | The Trojan Women (English version by Ronald Duncan of the adaptation by Jean-Paul Sartre of the play by Euripides) | The Assembly Hall | Frank Dunlop | Flora Robson, Jane Asher, Moira Redmond, Cleo Laine |
| 1966 | The Moscow Puppets | | Gateway Theatre | Sergei Obraztsov | |
| 1966 | Traverse Theatre Club | Lorca (Bettina Jonič) | Gateway Theatre | Ande Anderson | Tom Beckley and Bettina Jonič |
| 1966 | Polish Mime Theatre, Wrocław | Jeselka, The Labyrinth, A woman's Gown, Marathon, The Dream, The Post Office | Church Hill Theatre | Henryk Tomaszewski | Stanisław Brzozowski, Stefan Niedzialkowski |
| 1966 | John Ridley Productions Ltd | The Wrong Side of the Moon (Nicholas Stuart Gray) | Gateway Theatre | | |