A new book which presents a “dazzling array” of photographer Angus McBean’s trademark images while working at the Royal Shakespeare Company between 1945 and 1962 is to be published on 18 October 2018 by Manchester University Press.
McBean considered that his finest achievement was to record the works of Shakespeare and he captured more than 160 productions in Stratford and London. Before his death in 1990, he planned for the best photographs to be brought together in print.
The book includes every one of Shakespeare’s 37 plays and all the period’s greatest theatrical names: Olivier, Gielgud, Scofield, Burton, Quayle, Redgrave, Richardson, Ashcroft and Evans.
Many of the 350 pictures, chosen mostly by McBean himself on his last visit to Stratford with his friend and biographer Adrian Woodhouse, are previously unpublished.
To celebrate the book’s publication, Woodhouse and RSC artistic director Gregory Doran will be among the speakers at Shakespeare by McBean in The Other Place, Stratford on Friday 19 October at 5PM.