Literary Management at the National Theatre, London: An Interview with John Russell Brown Richard Beacham John Russell Brown has been an Associate Director and Literary Manager at the National Theatre of Great Britain since 1973. Formerly Professor of English at the University of Sussex, he is the author of Free Shakespeare. Last Spring he was interviewed in London for Theater. Beacham: Britain doesn't have a strong tradition of theatrical literary managers or dramaturgs. Do you see historically any rough equivalent in British theater for the type of work that you do here? Brown: Not really. I think the first one was Kenneth Tynan when he was brought in by Olivier as the "Literary Manager" of the National Theatre. But the theater's always had contacts with universities. Barry Jackson at the Birmingham Rep was a very close personal friend of Professor Allardyce Nicoll. At the Malvern festivals with late Bernard Shaw plays were revivals of strange plays like Woman Killed With Kindness, Merry Devil of Edmonton, Jacob and Essau: for all those Allardyce did act as a kind of dramaturg, literary adviser to Barry Jackson. I suppose that you could say Gilbert Murray, particularly for the Euripides translations, was a kind of literary adviser for Granville Barker at the Court. Beacham: Was Granville Barker himself such a person? Brown: Well, Granville Barker was an actor, director and playwright; he wasn't free for academic speculation or scholarly research; all that came later in his case. He moved towards being a critic and also acted as adviser to the Gielgud Lear in 1948. Beachman: Are you the only such figure on the scene today? Brown: Oh no. The RSC followed suit and went through several literary advisers: Derek Sanford, John Holstrom, Jeremy Brooks, Ron Bryden. At present they have made a different sort of ap- 38 pointment which is concerned with new writing rather than with advice on the repertoire in general: Howard Davies is now their man for contacting young writers, but he is also in charge of the Warehouse studio theater in London. Beacham: But he is particularly concerned with new plays? Brown: Yes, indeed. Plays which are submitted to the RSC by new writers are sent automatically to Howard Davies who an assistant called Walter Donohue. The Royal Court has also had a literary adviser. They tend to change every two or three years and they employ dramatists - Ann Jellicoe, David Howarth, David Hare and N. F. Simpson have all done this job; and I'm told that Richard Crane is about to take over. Beacham: Outside of these major companies and the major sub- sidized national companies, how does the task get done? Brown: The type of work that I do is usually done unofficially with friends at the local university and other personal contacts. Most of the repertory theaters in England haven't got the time or money for a regular appointment. Sometimes resident dramatists (under the Thames Television New Dramatists Awards Scheme) are given the task of reading new plays when they come in. The Royal Court at one time had a circle of about 6 readers of plays who were largely young dramatists or young directors who were on a kind of minimal payroll. Beachman: Do you see the shape of the situation changing par- ticularly - with companies undertaking to bring such people on to their staff? . Brown: If there was more money, that's one of the things that would happen. I'm not sure how high a priority it would be given, but theaters do get sent a large number of scripts and it is very dif- ficult to handle that if you're the artistic director of a theater Theater Published by Duke University Press