The Olivier it was. Originally, Hall was to direct the play himself, but was prevented by other commitments. Michael Bogdanov, fresh from directing Sean O’Casey’s Shadow of a Gunman for the RSC, a production which Brenton thought ‘terrific’, would make it his first piece as a National Theatre Associate.

Rehearsals began at the start of September. Bogdanov and Martin Johns designed an atmospheric set with dark and threatening woodland as the main element. When the production moved on to the Olivier stage, Brenton’s impulse was to work with an essentially naturalistic design, as opposed to the expressionistic context initially onstage. Two weeks into rehearsal, what was originally thought to be, as Brenton said, ‘a great brooding epic. But actually its scale is more domestic, [so the staging] began to get more realistic. Michael, to his credit, changed tack … As it got more realistic it got more ugly. The slaughter of those nude boys was terrifying’ (Rosenthal: 323). During the initial runs, as Brenton said, ‘We spent most of the six previews cutting the set’. The design was adapted, the set re-painted and re-lit, and more and more of the ‘glowering’ trees stripped out. Brenton preferred in effect a ‘neutral’ design, but remained unhappy about the final design.

Casting and rehearsing provided its own difficulties. Greg Hicks, who played Marban, was initially cast as Soldier 6, but was offered Marban when others had declined. He re-read the play ‘over a weekend, over a bottle of wine, and thought “No fucking way am I ever going to do that”. And then I was cavalier enough to say, “Yeah, I’ll do it”’ (Rosenthal: 323–4).

The scene of the simulated rape with Hicks and Peter Sproule playing the soldier began in closed rehearsals. To simulate the soldier attempting to rape Marban, Sproule placed his fist around his penis, protruding his thumb to suggest an erection. Hicks remembers one morning’s work on the assault:

I looked up to a skylight and saw this bloke painting the roof, just gaping down at me and Pete Sproule completely naked. The rumours round the building were phenomenal, even that there were orgies going on – so Michael invited [everyone], people who worked in the car park, the canteen – to watch a run-through. He got a barrel of beer and paper cups. At the end, Peter Hall glided up and said: ‘Very good, well done, very brave. I do have to warn you: there will be trouble’. (Ibid.)

Hall felt that staging the rape scene in full light at the front of the stage was likely to cause a strong reaction. It was suggested that it might be moved upstage behind a tree. Both author and director declined. And Peter Hall supported their decision. None of them could foresee what trouble lay ahead.

Performance and Reception

The fifth preview of Romans on 15 October was also its guest night, where the National hosted patrons, sponsors and politicians, amongst them Horace Cutler leader of the Greater London Council, and Geoffrey Seaton, Cutler’s Chief Whip. They walked out before the interval. On 16 October, Peter Hall received a telegram from Cutler: