British Performance on the International Stage: Theatre, Cultural Diplomacy, and the British Council's Early Years

Abstract

In May of 1940, the British Council sent the Sadler's Wells Ballet Company on a tour of the Netherlands. This tour, which ended with the German invasion on May 10th, became one of the first events to bring international attention to the British Council and its activities in the realm of cultural propaganda. While most recent studies of the Council focus on the organization's operations in the postwar period and the Cold War, this article examines the Council's history during its formative years from 1934–1947. It traces the evolution of the Council during these years and the domestic and foreign political tensions that complicated their initial activities. Finally, in focusing on theatre and dance operations of the Council, this article shows how the success and continued operation of the British Council was owed not only to their forward-looking approach to cultural propaganda in the twentieth century, but also to their ability to co-opt and revitalise the institutions of traveling performance that had existed throughout Britain's imperial past.