 The triumvirate secured the New Theatre for their first season and recruited a company . Thorndike was joined by , among others , Harcourt Williams , Joyce <unk> and Margaret <unk> . It was agreed to open with a repertory of four plays : <unk> <unk> , Arms and the Man , Richard III and Uncle Vanya . Olivier 's roles were the Button <unk> , Sergius , Richard and Astrov ; Richardson played <unk> , <unk> , Richmond and Vanya . The first three productions met with acclaim from reviewers and audiences ; Uncle Vanya had a mixed reception , although The Times thought Olivier 's Astrov " a most distinguished portrait " and Richardson 's Vanya " the perfect compound of <unk> and pathos " . In Richard III , according to Billington , Olivier 's triumph was absolute : " so much so that it became his most frequently imitated performance and one whose supremacy went <unk> until Antony Sher played the role forty years later " . In 1945 the company toured Germany , where they were seen by many thousands of Allied servicemen ; they also appeared at the <unk> @-@ Française theatre in Paris , the first foreign company to be given that honour . The critic Harold Hobson wrote that Richardson and Olivier quickly " made the Old Vic the most famous theatre in the Anglo @-@ Saxon world . " 
