Shakespeare on stage: A dramatic era bows out in Stratford

"All the world's a stage," declares Jacques in As You Like It, when he delivers one of Shakespeare's most-quoted lines. And, for more than 70 years, when the world thought of Shakespeare, the one stage that has come to mind has been that of the Royal Shakespeare Theatre at Stratford-upon-Avon.

Now, with the climax of a performance of Coriolanus on Saturday night, the curtain has come down for the last time on the vast space at the heart of the RST - perched right on the banks of the River Avon and just a few hundred yards from the grave of the bard himself - as it prepares for a £100m rebuilding programme.

While the theatre world generally acknowledges that the 1930s Art Deco building needs updating, there will be many a nostalgic tear shed at what is the end of an era. When the builders move in, they will be ripping up a stage that has been trodden by many of the greatest actors of the 20th century: Laurence Olivier, Michael Redgrave, John Gielgud, Ralph Richardson, Peggy Ashcroft in the early years, followed by names such as David Warner, Judi Dench, Ian Richardson and Janet Suzman, working under legendary directors such as Peter Hall, Trevor Nunn and Terry Hands.

And when they tear down the walls of the auditorium, they will be removing the last echoes of legendary performances - Olivier as Coriolanus, Warner's Hamlet for the modern era, Antony Sher's spider-like Richard III and Dame Edith Evans's Nurse from Romeo and Juliet, which demonstrated, in the words of the great critic, the late Bernard Levin, "absolute command in every line, word and movement".

It was these "ghosts in the walls" that the current artistic director, Michael Boyd paid tribute to in a short speech to the audience on Saturday night. They would, he hoped, accompany the Royal Shakespeare Company while it decamps up the road for the next three years to its temporary home in the new Courtyard Theatre.

When the new RST is reborn in 2010, it will be with a new theatre for the modern era, but based on those of the past, removing the restraints of the proscenium arch - the idea of which is a largely 19th-century concept anyway - and moving the stage into the audience, which will be smaller and closer to the actors, on three sides of the stage and on three levels of height.

It is that physical gulf between actors and audience which has dogged the theatre since it was opened in 1932, replacing the original Victorian gothic Shakespeare Memorial Theatre building, destroyed by fire in 1926.

The new theatre was designed by the pioneering female architect Elisabeth Scott, a member of the renowned Scott family of architects - her cousin, Giles Gilbert Scott, was the creator of Battersea and Bankside power stations, the latter home to Tate Modern.

Scott's design echoed some of her relative's brick-based monumentalism, as well as reflecting the then trend for large cinema style playhouses, where the biggest section of the audience was furthest away - not a problem for massive film screens, but a disadvantage for an actor on the stage attempting to convey complex emotions to the back rows of the upper circle. It was, as one actor related mournfully, "like acting from Calais to the white cliffs of Dover", and would divide performers between those who loved its room and those who rued its lack of intimacy.

Due to the intervention of the Second World War, it was not until the mid-1940s that the productions there began to win serious critical acclaim and attracted stars of the calibre of Olivier and Gielgud.

In 1960, Peter Hall formed the modern RSC, based around a core of key actors and directors, and a year later, the theatre was renamed the Royal Shakespeare Theatre, while its repertoire was widened to take in modern work and other classics. The Sixties saw a golden generation of actors and landmark productions. In 1961, after watching Vanessa Redgrave play Rosalind in As You Like It, Levin wrote: 'The naturalness of her playing, the passionate, breathless conviction of it, the depth of feeling and the breadth of reality - this is not acting at all, but living, being, loving."

Then there was Warner's celebrated Hamlet, directed by Hall: It was "a Hamlet for this bewildered post-war generation, frustrated, unhappy, sure of nothing" said The Stage. While critics were divided, the public loved it; hundreds queued all night for standing tickets.

Although the RSC diversified, opening a London base at the Barbican, creating The Other Place just along the waterside and then the Elizabethan-like Swan Theatre in 1986, the main auditorium remained the benchmark space, where the announcement of the next season of plays, and which star names and which lesser ones would be performing the great Shakespearean roles, would be eagerly awaited by theatregoers.

Then came the controversial plan, under the previous artistic director, Adrian Noble, to demolish the Scott building entirely and replace it with a "theatre village". That provoked outrage - Noble would later call his last year in charge "a horrible time" - and led to the current compromise, which retains key elements of the Art Deco building.

But the auditorium will change for ever. Paul Taylor, The Independent's theatre critic since the late Eighties is not in mourning: "I always thought it was too cavernous, and you could never get into an intimate relationship with the actors. I'm not terribly sorry to see it go." The declamatory style of acting for which it was originally built has gone, he said, although actors had always been divided on its merits.

Michael Boyd believes the space "inspired", rather than intimidated, actors and directors because of its sense of continuity. "I think they are friendly ghosts - anyway, all actors have bad days: Oliver wasn't always perfect." Was he sad at its passing? "I do feel a bit sad. And while there is a sense of resurgence among the company about what we are doing, there is a sadness at saying goodbye to a space which has been such an important home for us. But not many people are coming up and telling me we have made a mistake."

Creation of a more intimate, larger playhouse

A more welcoming, more available theatre that places the audience and the actors in closer proximity, is how Michael Boyd, the artistic director of the Royal Shakespeare Company, describes the refurbished building that is due to open in 2010.

The new Royal Shakespeare Theatre will reverse the emphasis of the current one - swapping a grandiose performance space for a smaller, more intimate one and recreating impressive entrance and public areas, replacing the current, rather cramped ones.

The three-year refurbishment plan - during which the RSC will move to the nearby, 1,000-seat Courtyard Theatre - follows the controversy over previous director Adrian Noble's scheme to demolish it in its entirety.

Involving the flawed but much-loved original Art Deco building being replaced by a "theatre village", the plans provoked outcry among theatre-goers and luminaries such as Dame Judi Dench, who believe the scheme contributed to the end of Noble's tenure.

The new plans, unveiled in June last year, will retain many elements of the existing building which is Grade II-listed. The cramped front foyer will be turned into a bar and a new entrance will be built on the front of the theatre, involving a 100-foot high tower. New public areas will be created by the decision to relocate the RSC's administrative offices on the other side of the road from the main building.

The main change will be to the auditorium itself, long criticised for the huge distance between performer and audience and which the RSC has attempted to bridge in recent years by extending the stage into the stalls. The new "thrust" stage will be surrounded on three sides by the audience who will be seated on three tiers, Elizabethan style. The number of seats will be reduced from 1,400 to 1,000.

The new auditorium will have a closer feel to the existing Swan Theatre, based on original Elizabethan theatres such as the Globe and the Rose and which is sited directly adjacent to the main RSC building. Some believe it will be simply a larger version of the Swan, which will close during 2008 and 2009, reopening in 2010. The temporary Courtyard Theatre will close when the new building opens, while The Other Place, which will act as its foyer, will eventually revert to a studio space.

Mr Boyd said yesterday: "We are cutting in half the distance between audience and performers, who will now be tremendously close to each other. It will combine the epic scale of a large playhouse and a more intimate relationship with the audience."

He wanted the new RST entrance to present a more open and welcoming aspect to visitors: "I want it to say 'come ye all'."