Gerhard, electronic music and King Lear

Between 1947 and 1962 Roberto Gerhard contributed incidental music to eight Shakespeare plays for the Shakespeare Memorial Theatre (later Royal Shakespeare Company). Of these, easily the most controversial was George Devine's production King Lear for the Stratford Touring Company in 1955. A far cry from his very traditional The Taming of the Shrew (1953) and still relatively ‘safe’ A Midsummer Night's Dream (1954) – for both of which Gerhard also composed music – this was a thoroughly modern production. The sets and costumes were designed by the American sculptor Isamu Noguchi (of mixed American and Japanese parentage), and were his first theatre designs. The rationale behind the production was set out in the programme:Our object in this production has been to find a setting and costumes which would be free of historical or decorative associations so that the timeless, universal and mythical quality of the story may be clear. We have tried to present the places and the characters in a very simple and basic manner, for the play to come to life through the words and the acting.