The Story of the Ring

Lord Michael Birkett was Assistant Director at Ealing Studios where he worked with Peter Ustinov and Sir Peter Hall. He has been Director of Recreation and Arts at the GLC, on the council of The Royal Philharmonic Orchestra and involved with the National Theatre. Elizabeth Bury is a theatre designer, latterly illustrator; who started work at the Royal Shakespeare Company in 1964 with The Marat Sade, then collaborated with John Bury, to whom she was married until his death in 2000. Theatre work includes productions at the National Theatre, Stratford-upon-Avon, Aldwych, on and off Broadway, Tokyo and various London and continental theatres. Opera work includes productions at Covent Garden, Glyndebourne, Sydney, Metropolitan Ny, Los Angeles and Chicago. She is now retired but can still draw. Sir Peter Hall was one of the greatest theatre, film and opera directors of our time. His extraordinary career spanned more than half a century. In his mid-20s he staged the English language premiere of Samuel Beckett’s Waiting for Godot. In 1960, at the age of 29, he founded the Royal Shakespeare Company. In 1973 he was appointed Director of the National Theatre and opened the new theatres on the South Bank. He later founded the Peter Hall Company, producing many West End and Broadway successes. Then in 2003 he founded the Rose Theatre Kingston. Sir Peter directed over two hundred productions, including his seminal The Wars of the Roses (1963) adapted with John Barton from Shakespeare's history plays, which was described as "the greatest Shakespearian event in living memory”. He directed the world premiere Peter Shaffer's Amadeus (1979), and the premieres of most of Harold Pinter's plays. He also directed at international opera houses, including Glyndebourne, the Royal Opera House, Covent Garden, the Metropolitan Opera and Bayreuth. Throughout his life, Sir Peter championed public funding for the arts. Sir Peter was diagnosed with dementia in 2011 and died on 11th September 2017, at the age of 86, surrounded by his family.