Bertram Park and Yvonne Gregory 1920's and 1930's glass plates, theatre archive

Bertram Park and Yvonne Gregory were seminal theatre photographers whose glass plate collection includes many of the most important theatre productions of the 1920’s and 30’s.
Covering numerous legendary productions, such as the first English presentation of George Bernard Shaw’s Saint Joan in 1924 starring Sybil Thorndike; John Gielgud’s 1934 Hamlet as well as his 1935 production of Romeo and Juliet in which John Gielgud and Laurence Olivier exchanged the roles of Romeo and Mercutio, with Peggy Ashcroft as Juliet and Edith Evans as the Nurse.

Olivier can also be seen in James Laver's version of Klabund's The Circle of Chalk in 1929 and Gielgud's production of Gordon Daviot's Queen of Scots in 1934, with more from Peggy Ashcroft in Ashley Dukes's adaptation of Lion Feuchtwanger's Jew Suss in 1929. There is also extensive coverage of Nigel Playfair’s reign at the Lyric Theatre, Hammersmith including his 1928 version of The Beggar’s Opera which played for almost fifteen hundred performances!

The Bertram Park and Yvonne Gregory Glass Plate collection is a part of The University of Bristol Theatre Collection

View all images from The Bertram Park and Yvonne Gregory Archive