The Shakespeare Hut: research reveals the forgotten and marginalised histories of Shakespeare performance and theatre heritage

The earliest history of the National Theatre was for many years forgotten.  Along with it, history had side-lined important stories of women’s early twentieth-century performance culture, Indian freedom-fighting activity in 1920s England and an episode in the development of the global youth organisation the YMCA. Ailsa Grant Ferguson’s rediscovery of the 'Shakespeare Hut' (1916–23) has changed this, revealing forgotten histories of marginalised groups in Shakespearean heritage and leading to exciting new work on the bard's daughter Susanna Hall. 

The Shakespeare Hut was a large mock-Tudor bungalow at the corner of Keppel and Gower Streets in Bloomsbury, London. It was built in 1916 on land designated to be the site of a new National Theatre but the land was then offered to the YMCA as a contribution to the war effort. The hut was dedicated to the memory of Shakespeare and, because it had been the identified site for the National Theatre, it included a purpose-built theatre. It also aspired to be a home from home for serving New Zealand Anzacs on leave from 1916 to 1919.

The building was then transformed after 1919 into the YMCA Indian Students’ Hostel, a space for lively and radical debate and ground-breaking co-education for young Indian people, before being demolished in 1923. It was the only commemorative building constructed in 1916 to mark the 300 years since Shakespeare’s death. Idiosyncratically unique, it was a powerful space in terms of Shakespearean commemoration and performance, affecting the expression and construction of national identity. 

Black and white photograph. Military men in World War One uniforms stand on the pavement outside a single-storey mock-Tudor building. A large sign reads: Shakespeare YMCA rest and recreation hut for men of HM Forces. Popularly known as the Shakespeare Hut

Images courtesy of the YMCA and Cadbury Research Library Special Collection, University of Birmingham.

The Shakespeare Hut: A Story of Memory, Performance and Identity

Ailsa Grant Ferguson’s rediscovery of the purposes for, and uses of, the Shakespeare Hut has provided a new tool through which Shakespeare can be read, understood and performed. Its story tells us of commemoration and of forgotten processes of cultural or collective memory formation, of gender and performance, and of complex, dynamic national identities. The research has now acted as a catalyst for new creative practices in theatre and new interpretations of female theatre history, building recognition of neglected histories in Shakespeare’s heritage, establishing a new role for women and suffrage in Shakespearean theatre history and building new material histories and audiences for major organisations.

Ailsa Grant Ferguson’s monograph The Shakespeare Hut: A Story of Memory, Performance and Identity, 1916-1923 was published in The Arden Shakespeare series by Bloomsbury in 2019. It uses neglected archive materials to build a rich history of diverse performances and audiences that generated a sense of place and belonging. 

This has enabled the development of collaborations with varied organisations in particular the Shakespeare Birthplace Trust, National Theatre and YMCA, collaborations which have focused on the development of cultural, commemorative and creative projects presenting previously forgotten histories.  

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Research into the Shakespeare Hut and Hall's Croft reveal vital elements in the history of women's theatre 

The Shakespeare Hut had a vital place in the history of women’s theatre, as Ailsa Grant Ferguson showed when she uncovered the missing history of key members of the Actresses’ Franchise League during the war. These actresses performed on what served, at that moment, as the stage of the nascent National Theatre. By establishing a new role for women and suffrage in Shakespearean theatre history, Ailsa Grant Ferguson’s research opened up new avenues of creative enquiry into the role of women in Shakespeare’s history, contributing to a contemporary international challenge of addressing gender bias in the history of theatre. 

Ailsa Grant Ferguson continued research into women's roles in Shakespearean theatre and culture by leading a major programme of work in close collaboration with the Shakespeare Birthplace Trust, focusing on the heritage site Hall’s Croft, a seventeenth-century house in Stratford-upon-Avon, and one of its original occupants, Shakespeare’s daughter, Susanna Hall.

Susanna, along with her husband, John, were not only chosen as executors of her legendary playwright father's will, but were also left the bulk of his estate. It is also believed that Shakespeare left his papers to Susanna, making it highly likely she was closely involved in the compilation of the First Folio of plays published in 1623. 

Susanna Hall and Hall's Croft: Gender, Cultural Memory, Heritage (funded by the Arts and Humanities Research Council, part of UK Research and Innovation) uses Susanna's life story as a lens through which to explore how fiction, cultural history and the heritage industry has presented Susanna and other women from Elizabethan and Jacobean times. The project develops new approaches to mediating women in relation to Shakespeare and stems directly from Ailsa Grant Ferguson’s approach to revealing the multiplicity of heritage by working with diverse organisations. Her work has also spurred the development of several new creative pieces using collaboration and consultation, including that with actress, director and academic, Dr Naomi Paxton and the production company Scary Little Girls on an immersive theatre production.

Cultural archival research reveals new aspects of diverse early twentieth-century histories in London

Ailsa Grant Ferguson’s research also identified the role of performance in creating a cultural exchange and home-from-home for the New Zealand Anzacs, and investigated the role of the Hut in fostering Indian revolutionary culture, including the identification of the presence of several female Indian freedom fighters, with the Hut offering a space to challenge the broader establishment through more radical discussions on Indian independence. This has contributed to the YMCA’s understanding of the early years of its Indian branch in London, and the 100th Anniversary of the founding of the Indian YMCA in London referenced the Shakespeare Hut at the core of the celebration.

Through Ailsa Grant Ferguson’s research on the immediate post-war period at the Hut, we also learn the origins of the Royal Shakespeare Company, as income generated through rent between 1919 and 1923 was used to found its earliest iteration, the New Shakespeare Company, the first national Shakespearean touring company. The history of production at the National Theatre had previously been accepted to have started in 1963 with the first productions at the Old Vic.

Ailsa Grant Ferguson's discoveries have led to a new and much longer history of National Theatre performance emerging and being presented to national and international audiences. This has in turn helped the organisation to develop a new strategic direction, positioning the archive as more integral to the institution’s public engagement work.

Ailsa Grant Ferguson’s work underpinned an event commemorating the opening of the most recent Shakespeare Hut on the site of the original Hut. The London School of Hygiene and Tropical Medicine, which now occupies the original site, collaborated with private company Digital Drama to produce a performance and exhibition to commemorate the lives of the servicemen who used, and the women who worked at, the Shakespeare Hut. The project, Resurrecting the Shakespeare Hut, used Ailsa Grant Ferguson’s research and introduced the public to the site’s hidden history for the first time, preserving its heritage for future generations to enjoy, with positive evaluations of the performative nature of the event.