 Gielgud engaged Byam Shaw to direct Dodie Smith's "Dear Octopus" in 1938 with a cast including Gielgud, Marie Tempest, Kate Cutler and Baddeley.Byam Shaw concluded his acting career in the late 1930s in roles including D'Arcy in a dramatisation of "Pride and Prejudice", character parts in "The Merchant of Venice" and "Richard II", and Sir Benjamin Backbite in "The School for Scandal".After appearing in Michel Saint-Denis's short season at the Phoenix Theatre in 1938, his final role was Horatio to Gielgud's Hamlet, both in London and at Elsinore Castle.