Between Theatre and Television: Inside the Hybrid Space of the Wars of the Roses. Issue 3 (November 2015)

• Record Type: Journal Article
• Authors: Wyver, John
• Is Part Of: Critical studies in television. Volume 10:Issue 3(2015)
• Page Start: 23
• Page End: 36
• Publication Date: 2015-11
• Subjects: William Shakespeare -- adaptation -- BBC -- The Wars of the Roses -- Royal Shakespeare Company; Television -- Periodicals; Television criticism -- Periodicals; 384.5505
• DOI: 10.7227/CST.10.3.3
• Languages: English
• ISSNs: 1749-6020

Abstract

In 1964 BBC Television recorded the Royal Shakespeare Company's History plays cycle The Wars of the Roses. The production was shot in the RSC's Stratford-upon-Avon theatre, temporarily transformed into a multi-camera television studio, and it remains the only major production for British television to have been recorded in that manner. As well as detailing The Wars of the Roses ' unique production process, this article analyses the ways in which that approach determined a hybrid screen language for the series. It proposes that the television production exposes a tension between the plays' theatrical origin and competing imperatives of television presentation.