Richard Foulkes

We have learned, with sadness, of the death of Emeritus Professor Richard Foulkes, formerly Professor of Theatre History, who passed away on 26 February 2026.

Lois Potter writes:

When he retired as Chairman of the Society for Theatre Research in 2014, Richard George Dakin Foulkes (1944-2026) recalled in his farewell lecture that he had been a theatre historian almost all his life, though "the first profession to which I aspired was that of a dramatic critic." Born into a farming family in Shareshill, he was an enthusiastic theatre-goer in nearby Wolverhampton. Even as a boy, he always saved theatre programmes, folding a relevant review into his copy, and he began collecting theatre material as early as 1964. His programmes and reviews from 1960 to 2008 now form the Foulkes Collection at the University of Kent.

Richard took his undergraduate degree from University College, Swansea, and an MA in Drama and Theatre Arts at Birmingham University, with a thesis on Bulwer-Lytton’s Richelieu, one of the works of which he had bought a playbill. He remained in Birmingham as an administrator for some years before coming to Northampton, in 1973, as a Lecturer in Leicester University’s Adult Education Center. One of his first innovations was to arrange Saturday afternoon sessions in connection with the current production at the Northampton Theatre Royal (later the Derngate). The idea was to juxtapose a talk by an academic with one by a theatre professional, usually the director, something that generally stimulated lively discussion. Always impeccably dressed and quietly spoken, Richard was obviously well-liked by the many regulars in the audience. Visiting speakers also appreciated the fact that he took good care of them, providing all necessary equipment, adequate refreshments, and an accurate and respectful introduction (as well as a free ticket to the relevant play). His loyalty to the local theatre culminated in his becoming the director of Northampton Repertory Players from 1990 to 1996 and chairman from 1995 to 1996. In 1996 he also edited a ‘bi-centenary celebration’ of local poet John Clare (published by the Adult Education department, it is free to download on the Internet Archive). 

Despite its focus on Victorian Studies, Leicester University, like most academic institutions, had largely ignored the drama of that period. Undeterred, Richard extended his organisational skills to the running of a number of  conferences which led to two excellent collections of papers published by Cambridge University Press: Shakespeare and the Victorian Stage (1986) and British Theatre in the 1890s: Essays on Drama and the Stage (1992). Scenes from Provincial Stages: Essays in Honour of Kathleen Barker, was published by the Society for Theatre Research in 1994 and Henry Irving: a re-evaluation of the pre-eminent Victorian actor-manager by Ashgate in 2008.

When, like many Adult Education departments, the Northampton site closed in the late 1980s, Richard became a full-time member of the English department in Leicester, which he chaired from 2004 to 2008. As in Northampton, colleagues admired his calm manner and his quiet, low-profile, efficiency. His PhD students included Kathleen Barker (already a well-known theatre historian) and Katherine Cockin (who soon became one). By now, also, he had produced a number of well-reviewed monographs. The first ones – The Shakespeare Tercentenary of 1864 (1984) and The Calverts: Actors of Some Importance (1992) – were published by the Society for Theatre Research, of which he had been a member since the 1960s. Church and Stage in Victorian England (Cambridge 1997) was followed in 2002 by Performing Shakespeare in an Age of Empire (also from Cambridge). These were scrupulously researched works, full of fascinating information about a period in theatre history that was beginning to be taken more seriously.

By the time he published Lewis Carroll and the Victorian Stage: Theatricals in a Quiet Life (Ashgate 2005), as Ann Featherstone wrote in New Theatre Quarterly for 2008, "Theatre scholars have come to expect high standards from Richard Foulkes: finely detailed, perceptive analysis and a fresh perspective on a little-known aspect of Victorian entertainment." It was on the basis of these publications that he was awarded a doctorate and a personal chair in Theatre History, the first in the United Kingdom. Meanwhile, as one of the associate editors of the Oxford Dictionary of National Biography (2004), Richard contributed 13 entries on nineteenth-century theatre figures. In the Society for Theatre Research he became General Editor of Publications and, later, Chair, a post that he held until 2014. 

Richard’s first marriage ended in divorce and he married Christine Jordan in 1992. In 2015 they moved to a house in Wellingborough filled with flowers and with the theatre memorabilia that he had never stopped collecting. In 2018 he was diagnosed with the progressive and tiring illness of Lewy Body Dementia. He and Christine took the news in a positive spirit and Christine’s affectionate care enabled him to remain at home until his final year. Though no longer able to read or write about the theatre, he retained his interest to the end, always eager to talk about past productions. He died peacefully in Bilton Nursing Home, Wellingborough, Northants, on 26 February 2026, survived by Christine, his first wife Sally Smith (née Cronne), their daughter Emma, stepson Joel, and grandchildren Lily and Daniel. Donations in his memory may be sent to the Lewy Body Society or the Alzheimer's Society.

• The funeral will take place on 26 March at St Mary the Virgin Church, 177 Knox Road, Wellingborough, NN8 1PX at 12.30 pm, followed by a reception at the Wellingborough Golf Club, Great Harrowden, NN9 5AD.