Peter Has Entered the Building - Again???

Sir Peter Hall - founding director of the modern Royal Shakespeare Company and former artistic director of the Royal National Theatre - is preparing to return to a building base after years as a globe-trotting freelance director. A brand new theatre complex, of which he'll be the inaugural artistic director, is being built for him at Kingston-upon-Thames in Surrey. In an interview with the Daily Telegraph, Hall explains: "I've always dreamed of having a small company and one space. I remain absolutely dedicated to the ensemble." The Kingston venue is "built to the floor plan of the Elizabethan Rose theatre, seats 900 people in astonishing intimacy, but is a modern building, not 'olde worlde' like the Globe. I want to do seven or eight plays a year there with the same group." The director, who celebrates 50 years in the business this year, also hopes to make his summer season at the Theatre Royal Bath, which opens this week (See Today's News), an annual event. And for those who doubt the septuagenarian's staying power, take heart; he has no plans to slow down anytime soon. "I couldn't bear to retire. I'll drop dead doing this. The awful paradox is that I don't feel I'm in my seventies, I feel I'm about 35."

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