The interior was reconstructed by Robert Cromie, and the number of seats was reduced to under 500. The theatre re-opened in 1952. George Devine was appointed artistic director at the suggestion of Oscar Lewenstein, one of the founders of the English Stage Company. Greville Poke, another co-founder was appointed Honorary Secretary of the ESC in October 1954. The ESC opened at the Royal Court in 1956 as a subsidised theatre producing new British and foreign plays, together with some classical revivals. Devine aimed to create a writers' theatre, seeking to discover new writers and produce serious contemporary works. Devine produced the new company's third production in 1956, John Osborne's "Look Back in Anger", a play by one of the angry young men. The director was Tony Richardson. Osborne followed "Look Back in Anger" with "The Entertainer", with Laurence Olivier in the lead as Archie Rice, a play the actor effectively commissioned from the playwright. Significantly, although it was quickly reversed, the artistic board of the ESC initially rejected the play. Two members of the board were in agreement in opposing "The Entertainer". The verse dramatist Ronald Duncan, the third co-founder of the ESC, disliked the work of Osborne according to Osborne biographer John Heilpern, while Lewenstein, a former Communist, did not want one of the theatre's new plays to be overwhelmed by its star and did not think much of the play.