Orpheus Descending

Sir Peter Reginald Frederick Hall, CBE is an English theatre and film director. Hall founded the Royal Shakespeare Company and directed the National Theatre , and has been prominent in defending public subsidy of the arts in Britain. Hall was born at Bury St. Edmunds, Suffolk, England, the son of... Grace Florence and Reginald Edward Arthur Hall, a stationmaster. Hall attended The Perse School in Cambridge and went on to the Joint Services School for Linguists during his National Service, where he learned to speak Russian. He produced and acted in several productions while at the University of Cambridge, was on the Cambridge University Amateur Dramatic Club Committee 1952-3, and graduated in 1953 from St Catharine's College. During the same year, he staged his first professional play at the Theatre Royal, Windsor. From 1954 to 1955 he was at the Oxford Playhouse where he directed several notable young actors such as Ronnie Barker and Roderick Cook. In August 1955, he directed the English-language premiere of Waiting for Godot by Samuel Beckett at the Arts Theatre, London.
more