Henry VI, 1963, Royal Shakespeare Company.

Henry VI: Director, Peter Hall; Designer, John Bury; Photographer, Tom Holt (ahds.ac.uk/performingarts). Royal Shakespeare Company, July 1963

"John Bury's resourceful setting has been slickened up in its adaptation to the Aldwych stage. One great improvement has evolved in the mechanics of the council-chamber set; where before the lengthy and distinctive table which formed the centre-piece of so much of the production was carried laboriously on from the wings, now it rises efficiently from out of the paving-slabs of the flooring, to provide an even more richly evocative anchor-point for the ever-changing sucession of nobles who sit at it." Frank Cox, Plays and Players 3.64

Simple pieces of furniture like tables and chairs were among the most common stage props in the Elizabethen theatre, as preserved here. HMR