'The mind goes back to the golden fairies...' Granville Barker's Choral Work

This chapter explores Barker’s experiments with group work on the stage and, in particular, his development of a choral aesthetic. It examines the importance Barker placed on the notion of the unified group and how it challenged the largely individualistic conventions of British theatre at the time, which manifested themselves in performances and stage pictures that prioritised the individual ‘star’ actor. It identifies the key influences that shaped Barker’s practice, including the work of other directors such as Reinhardt and Stanislavsky, as well as wider social and political issues. While reference is made to his contemporary work at the Court Theatre, this chapter focuses in the main on his three Shakespeare productions at the Savoy in 1912-14, and his series of Greek plays staged first at the Court and then toured to the east coast of the United States in 1915.