This book tells the forgotten story of the Shakespeare Hut, a vast, mock-Tudor building for New Zealand Anzac soldiers visiting London on leave from the front lines. Constructed in Bloomsbury in 1916, the Hut was to be the only built memorial to mark Shakespeare’s Tercentenary in the midst of war. With a purpose-built performance space, its tiny stage hosted the biggest theatrical stars of the age.
The Hut is a vivid and unique case study in cultural memory and performance of Shakespeare. One extraordinary building brings together Shakespeare’s place in First World War theatre, in emerging new post-colonial identities, the story of Shakespearean performance in the twentieth century and in the struggle for women’s suffrage.
Grant Ferguson transports you to the Hut and its lively, idiosyncratic world. From a feminist-led stage to a hub of Indian intellectual and political debate, from a Shakespeare memorial to an Anzac social club, this is the story of a building truly at a crossroads.
Table of Contents
List of Illustrations
Acknowledgements
Foreword by Gordon McMullan and Philip Mead
Introduction
Chapter one
Prologue: The Shakespeare Memorial National Theatre events, 1910-12: Festivity, bardolatry, (re)constructing ‘memory’
Chapter two
“What Ho! For Shakespeare, when we get back to Blighty!”: Commemorating Shakespeare in wartime
Chapter three
Performing Englishness: The Shakespeare Hut for Anzacs
Chapter four
Performing femininity: Women at the Shakespeare Hut
Chapter five
After the War, 1919-23
Chapter six
Epilogue: Forgetting and ‘Remembering’ the Shakespeare Hut, 1924-2016: Festivity, bardolatry and (re)constructing ‘memory’
Notes
Bibliography
Index
