A performance history of Sir Thomas More

Abstract

This thesis examines the history of Sir Thomas More in performance through an engagement, by correspondence and personal interview, with those theatrical practitioners most closely involved with the production of the play text as a theatrical event. This is allied to a close examination of those records of performance that remain accessible to the scholar. The relationship between the roles of the modern editor as an authorial collaborator and the modern director as a textual editor also informs the author’s approach to the subject. The limitations inherent in any records closely concerned with the production of an essentially ephemeral theatrical event are assessed in relation to the necessary subjectivity of critical responses to unique performances