SOURCE: “The Shakespeare Theatre, 1991-92,” in Shakespeare Quarterly, Vol. 43, No. 4, Winter, 1992, pp. 455-72.

In the following excerpt, Johnson-Haddad praises director William Gaskill's effort to stage a minimalist Coriolanus, but adds that the production suffered from a weak cast and the absence of a unified vision.

Halfway through the 1991-92 season, The Shakespeare Theatre at the Folger dropped the second half of its name to become simply “The Shakespeare Theatre,” for the company shifted quarters to the newly renovated Lansburgh Building in downtown Washington. While some felt a twinge of regret at seeing the company leave the charmingly impractical “Elizabethan” theater space it had occupied for many years at the Folger Shakespeare Library, there is no doubt that the move was long overdue and that the new facility at the Lansburgh is an improvement that will benefit crew, cast, and audiences alike. (I shall describe the new theater in...