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Dateline: 27th May, 2004
"RSC Should Think Again" Says Architect "The changes in key personnel at the Royal Shakespeare Company should be accompanied by an unrestricted re-thinking of the Stratford redevelopment," Erick van Egeraat, chief architect of the RSC plans to redevelop the RSC's theatres in Stratford, said earlier this week when he announced that his company, EEA London, was pulling out of the project. The project, originally put forward by Adrian Noble before his resignation as artistic director, could have involved the replacement of the 1930s Royal Shakespeare Theatre by a "theatre village" and met with a lot of opposition in Stratford and among RSC supporters, as well as within the company itself. Mr van Egeraat's leaving the project, on which his company has been working for five years, is due, he says, to his need to move on. "I am sure," he said, "there are a great number of talented architects out there who are both capable and hungry for a challenging job like this one." Since the project began, three major posts in the RSC have changed hands: Michael Boyd replaced Adrian Noble as artistic director, Sir Christopher Bland took over as chairman, and Vikki Heywood as chief executive. Already Michael Boyd has reversed a number of Noble's changes, giving more emphasis to the ensemble nature of the company's work and re-establishing a permanent base in London. "Decisions about the kind of theatres we need in Stratford are well advanced. However, there is still important work to be completed on the business case to make sure we can afford to build and run our Stratford theatres in the future. Vikki Heywood commented, "All work done by Erick and his team remains of great value for the further development of the project. Our primary concern now is to move forward and deliver the right solution for the RSC and Stratford," and communications manager Jane Ellis said she could not rule in or out any plans for the site but said that following the Strategic Review, started eighteen months ago, it was "less likely" the theatre would be demolished. Please note that all three Archive indices are very long and will therefore take some time to download.
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