VIDEO: New co-artistic directors Tamara Harvey and Daniel Evans mark new chapter at the RSC by announcing a whole year’s worth of shows - 17 in total
Newly appointed co-artistic directors of the RSC, Daniel Evans and Tamara Harvey gave their first interview to the Herald as they announced the next year’s worth of shows at the RSC.
Read our full interview in Thursday’s edition.
Meanwhile there is a lot to get excited about as 17 new shows have been announced, running from 18th April 2024 to March 2025.
All four theatres will be back up and running – the Royal Shakespeare Theatre, the Swan Theatre, the newly invigorated The Other Place, as well as the popular outdoor performance space, now called The Holloway Garden Theatre.
Comprising eight Shakespeare plays across the four stages, three world premières, a European première, a UK première, two major revivals, and two visiting productions, the season will welcome internationally renowned talent to the RSC.
There is a new Hamlet – Luke Thallon; and new Othello - John Douglas Thompson; while co-artistic director Daniel Evans continues to act, taking on the role of Edward II.
Ballet comes to the RST stage for the first time, with Northern Ballet’s Romeo & Juliet.
Christmas sounds like a treat for all – with a production of Twelfth Night and a reimagining of classic fairy tale The Red Shoes.
Co-artistic director Tamara Harvey makes her directorial RSC debut with Pericles, Shakespeare’s stirring tale of love, hope and miracles, with Alfred Enoch starring.
Time to brush up your Ukrainian with the arrival of the Uzhhorod Theatre and their production of King Lear, performed in their native language.
There is a lot of good cheer on offer with comedies Love’s Labour’s Lost (opening the new season and set on an island owned by a tech millionaire), 18th-century romp The School for Scandal, and The Merry Wives of Windsor, starring Samantha Spiro as Mistress Page.
There are four new plays, including an adaptation of The Buddha of Suburbia directed by Emma Rice; and writer David Edgar returns once again to the RSC with new political drama The New Real. Kyoto tackles issues of climate change; while English is Sanaz Toossi’s Pulitzer prize-winning play about four adult Iranian classmates who grapple with learning English as a foreign language.
With a desire to put accessibility at the heart of their tenure, Evans and Harvey will programme a summer season in The Holloway Garden Theatre with bite-sized Shakespeare for all ages, including As You Like It, where tickets are priced £20 for adults and £10 for children.
A major new ticket initiative is also launched today with 25,000 tickets at £25 or less across the season in Stratford. This will run alongside the TikTok £10 tickets for 14 to 25 year olds and state school students.
Tamara Harvey and Daniel Evans commented: “We begin our chapter at the RSC by announcing a whole year’s worth of shows - 17 in total, across four stages. With this, our first season, we want to throw open the doors in every sense, collaborating with artists from across the globe on all of our stages, and ensuring we can welcome as many people as possible with a brand-new ticket initiative of 25,000 tickets across the season at £25 or less.
“Our house playwright sits at the core of our season, with eight new productions across our theatres. The timeless, protean nature of Shakespeare’s writing offers an exciting canvas for artists – and we're excited to be renewing collaborations with so many of them, as well as inviting myriad others to make their RSC debuts. We will also host Northern Ballet for the first time with their imagining of Romeo & Juliet and Ukraine’s Uzhhorod Theatre with King Lear, both bringing their own unique take on Shakespeare’s stories.
“Shakespeare stands alongside a play by Christopher Marlowe, his contemporary, and a raft of new work by some of our most creative contemporary storytellers – Emma Rice and Hanif Kureishi, Joe Murphy and Joe Robertson, Sanaz Toossi, Nancy Harris and David Edgar, bringing first-time partnerships with Wise Children, Headlong, Good Chance and Kiln Theatre.
“This season marks the beginning of a new era for the RSC. We hope you will join us.”
THE SEASON IN FULL
ROYAL SHAKESPEARE THEATRE:
Luke Thompson leads the company of Love’s Labour’s Lost directed by Emily Burns
Rumour, gossip and scandal take centre stage in a comedy double-bill of Shakespeare’s The Merry Wives of Windsor directed by Blanche McIntyre, led by Samantha Spiro as Mistress Page; and Richard Brinsley Sheridan’s The School for Scandal directed by Tinuke Craig
Tim Carroll directs John Douglas Thompson as Othello with Will Keen as Iago and Juliet Rylance as Desdemona
Twelfth Night directed by Prasanna Puwanarajah
Adapted by Christopher Gable and Massimo Moricone with music by Sergei Prokofiev, Northern Ballet visits the RSC for the first time with their much-loved staging of Romeo & Juliet
Luke Thallon reunites with Olivier Award-winning Director Rupert Goold to make his RSC debut in the title role of Hamlet
SWAN THEATRE:
Hanif Kureishi’s The Buddha of Suburbia makes its global stage première in a major new co-production with Wise Children directed and adapted by Emma Rice, with Hanif Kureishi, with a cast including Dee Ahluwalia and Ankur Bahl
From the creators of The Jungle, Good Chance and the RSC present Kyoto, a new play by Joe Murphy and Joe Robertson directed by Stephen Daldry and Justin Martin
RSC Co-Artistic Director Tamara Harvey directs Alfred Enoch in a major new production of Shakespeare’s late romance Pericles
Associate Artistic Director of the Shaw Festival Theatre, Kimberley Rampersad directs a magical new staging of The Red Shoes, adapted by Nancy Harris
Double Olivier Award-winning actor and RSC Co-Artistic Director Daniel Evans returns to the RSC stage in a new production of Christopher Marlowe’s Edward II directed by Daniel Raggett
THE OTHER PLACE:
Sanaz Toossi’s Pulitzer Prize-winning play, English, receives its European première in association with Kiln Theatre, directed by Diyan Zora (2021 Genesis Future Directors award-winner) with actors Nadia Albina, Sara Hazemi, Lanna Joffrey and Serena Manteghi
First performed early in the Russia-Ukraine conflict, Uzhhorod Theatre Company present King Lear, adapted and directed by Vyacheslav Yehorov
Presented in association with Headlong, David Edgar’s The New Real receives its world premiere, directed by Holly Race Roughan
THE HOLLOWAY GARDEN THEATRE:
The Holloway Garden Theatre will make its return to Stratford with a new staging of Shakespeare’s As You Like It directed by Brendan O’Hea. This will be accompanied by a series of family-friendly workshops and events as well as a new interpretation of The Two Gentlemen of Verona by young people aged 13-18 from the RSC’s talent development programme Next Generation Act
FAMILY-FRIENDLY ACTIVITIES:
May half-term activities announced today include Tim Crouch’s critically acclaimed one-man re-imagining of Twelfth Night, I, Malvolio, and a new collaboration with Underbelly, Tweedy’s Massive Circus featuring the star of Gifford’s Circus, Tweedy the Clown
The Play’s The Thing – the RSC’s free interactive exhibition returns with new exhibits for 2024 co-curated with Stratford-upon-Avon partners The Fred Winter Centre, ILEAP and Warwickshire Pride, and is inspired by themes of Resilience and Possibility. The exhibition features the RSC’s First Folio alongside costumes worn by Vivien Leigh, Josette Simon, Ben Kingsley, David Tennant and Ian McKellen with interactive opportunities to explore the story of the RSC
Priority booking for Members and Supporters opens from Monday 22 January for Love’s Labour’s Lost, The Buddha of Suburbia, English, The Merry Wives of Windsor, The School for Scandal, King Lear, Kyoto, Romeo & Juliet, Pericles and As You Like It; with public booking opening on Thursday 8 February. For further information on how to become an RSC Member or Supporter, visit here.
On sale from Spring 2024: Othello, Twelfth Night, The Red Shoes, The New Real, Hamlet and Edward II, with further details to be announced.
