233. THE HOLLOW CROWN. From my (unpublished) ENCYCLOPEDIA OF THE NEW YORK STAGE, 1970-1975

Michael Redgrave.

THE HOLLOW CROWN [Dramatic Revival] AD: John Barton; D: Patrick Tucker; DS: Anna Steiner; P: Brooklyn Academy of Music i/a/w Brooklyn College, and by Paul Elliott and Duncan C. Weldon b/a/w the Royal Shakespeare Company in the Royal Shakespeare Theatre Production; T: Brooklyn Academy of Music (OB); 4/18/74-4/28/74 (7)

John Barton’s program of materials from diverse sources based on the kings and queens of English history was first seen in New York in 1963. This revival was presented by the Royal Shakespeare Company in a repertory season shared with a new anthology, Pleasure and Repentance. Edith Oliver said the selections “couldn’t be better” and the performances by the five-member cast “couldn’t be better, either.” The cast was led by one of England's greatest Shakespearean, Sir Michael Redgrave, his distinguished company including Sara Kestelman, James Grout, Paul Hardwick, and Martin Best.

The simple setting consisted of a table with five chairs and a glass of red wine placed before each chair. The actors all wore black.

The material ranged from Shakespeare to Sir Thomas Malory. Some of it was comic, some tragic, and some sung as well as acted. Remembering the earlier mounting, Oliver wrote, “I seems even better than it did the first time, if that is possible.”