This text traces the changing theatrical and cultural identity of the History plays in the context of postwar social and political conflict, crisis and change. Since the company's inception in the early 1960s, the RSC's commitment to relevance has fostered close relationships between Shakespearean criticism and performance, and between the theatre and its audiences. Through a detailed discussion of key productions, from "The War of the Roses" in 1963 to "The Plantegenets" in 1988, Robert Shaughnessy emphasizes the political dimension of contemporary theatrical representations of Shakespeare, and of the "Shakespearean" modes of history that these plays have been employed to promote; individualist, cyclical, male-dominated, and driven by essentialised, transcendent human nature.

Robert Shaughnessy is Professor of Theatre at the University of Kent, UK.

Introduction; Part I Performing Histories; Chapter One Representing Shakespeare; Chapter Two Production criticism, critical production; Part II Cycles; Chapter Three We'll meet again; Chapter Four Masters of war: The Wars of the Roses (1963-4); Chapter Five Anarchy in the UK: Henry IV (1975) and Henry VI (1977); Chapter Six Victorian values: Henry IV (1982) and The Plantagenets (1988); Part III Heroes and Villains; Chapter Seven Shakespeare through the looking-glass: Richard II (1973); Chapter Eight Playing soldiers: Henry V (1975 and 1984); Chapter Nine Murder in the cathedral: Richard III (1984); Part IV Shakespeare Bastardised; Chapter Ten Barton's Bard: the 1974 King John; Chapter Eleven All is True? The Davies-Edgar Henry VIII (1983); Chapter Twelve A bastard to the time: King John at The Other Place, 1988; Conclusion, Maria Framke;