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Big names and The Big Friendly Giant come to RSC as 2025 season announced




Co-artistic directors Daniel Evans and Tamara Harvey today announce details of the RSC’s Summer 2025 season and upcoming festive family show, The BFG.

This big, friendly production from the Royal Shakespeare Company, Chichester Festival Theatre and the Roald Dahl Story Company, is adapted by Tom Wells and directed by Daniel Evans in his directorial debut for the Company.

Tamara Harvey and Daniel Evans make bold season announcement with a year's worth of shows.
Tamara Harvey and Daniel Evans make bold season announcement with a year's worth of shows.

Joining the previously announced Hamlet Hail to the Thief and 4.48 Psychosis are five new Shakespeare productions directed by Joanna Bowman, Emily Burns, Yaël Farber, Michael Longhurst and Max Webster, a new version of W. Somerset Maugham’s The Constant Wife, which will see Olivier Award-winning playwright Laura Wade re-unite with co-artistic director Tamara Harvey, the European premiere of Fat Ham by Pulitzer Prize-winning playwright James Ijames, and nationwide tours of Rupert Goold’s Hamlet and First Encounters: King Lear.

The Summer season will welcome internationally-renowned acting talent to Stratford – including returning artists Simon Russell Beale and Freema Agyeman with Rose Leslie and Nick Blood making their RSC debuts.

Audiences of all ages will have the opportunity to come together to watch, make and explore, with highlights including an 80-minute staging of Shakespeare’s The Two Gentlemen of Verona; Tim Crouch’s I, Peaseblossom, his hit adaptation of William Shakespeare’s A Midsummer Night's Dream; a programme of interactive theatre workshops, free drop-in activities, family theatre trails, and the return of the RSC’s popular acting-based Summer schools for ages 8-14 and 18-25.

The BFG
The BFG

Tamara Harvey and Daniel Evans said: “Over the last twelve months, our guiding principle has been to seek out the most exciting directors, writers and actors working in the UK and internationally, and ask them which stories they feel a passionate desire to tell.

“Our 2025/26 season will bring together an international roster of creative talent, where the works of William Shakespeare stand shoulder to shoulder with some of the most compelling voices in modern playwriting, from Olivier Award-winning playwright Laura Wade to the late, great Sarah Kane and the Pulitzer Prize-winning James Ijames. And then there’s Roald Dahl, one of our greatest storytellers and children’s authors, whose 1982 novel The BFG will be the inspiration for our magical festive family show in 2025, newly adapted for the stage by Tom Wells.

Titus Andronicus
Titus Andronicus

“Alongside five new productions from the pen of our house playwright, directed by Joanna Bowman, Emily Burns, Yaël Farber, Michael Longhurst and Max Webster, we will also celebrate the diverse ways in which Shakespeare’s characters and stories continue to prove fertile ground for re-invention and re-discovery, with the world premiere of Hamlet Hail to the Thief, a frenetic distillation of the Hamlet story, set alongside the soundtrack of Radiohead’s seminal album, and the European premiere of James Ijames’ tragi-comic family drama, Fat Ham. We’re even taking our first foray into the world of gaming with Lili, a powerful, contemporary reimagining of Shakespeare’s Macbeth set in modern Iran, currently in development for 2026.”

2025: show by show

MUCH ADO ABOUT NOTHING

RST, Saturday 12 April – Saturday 24 May

Fresh from his tenure as artistic director of the Donmar Warehouse, director Michael Longhurst kicks off the season with a new staging of Shakespeare’s original rom-com, Much Ado About Nothing, set in the glossy world of professional football, where scandal-filled rivalries can undermine the final result. The production features Freema Agyeman as Beatrice and Nick Blood as Benedick.

Much Ado About Nothing
Much Ado About Nothing

TITUS ANDRONICUS

Swan Theatre, Thursday 17 April – Saturday 7 June

Director Max Webster, whose recent credits include Macbeth with David Tennant at the Donmar Warehouse and in the West End, examines Shakespeare’s bloodiest play through the lens of 21st century aggression. Olivier, Tony and BAFTA Award winner Simon Russell Beale takes the title role with Emma Fielding as Marcia Andronicus, Natey Jones as Aaron the Moor, Wendy Kweh as Tamora and Letty Thomas.

Much Ado About Nothing
Much Ado About Nothing

I, PEASEBLOSSOM

Swan Theatre, Wednesday 28 – Saturday 31 May

Multi award-winning writer and performer Tim Crouch presents his magical adaptation of A Midsummer Night’s Dream, re-lived through the fevered dreams of Shakespeare’s most neglected fairy. Written and performed by Tim Crouch, with Original Design by Graeme Gilmour, and Music by Karl James.

I Peaseblossom
I Peaseblossom

HAMLET HAIL TO THE THIEF

RST, Wednesday 4 - Saturday 28 June 2025

Shakespeare’s great tragedy and Radiohead’s seminal album collide for a feverish experience that fuses theatre, music, and movement in this co-production with Factory International. Adapted by Christine Jones with Steven Hoggett, with Music by Radiohead and Orchestrations by Thom Yorke, Hamlet Hail to the Thief distils Shakespeare’s masterpiece to its dark and glittering emotional core.

THE CONSTANT WIFE

Swan Theatre, Friday 20 June – Saturday 2 August

RSC Co-Artistic Director Tamara Harvey and playwright Laura Wade reunite after their Olivier Award-winning collaboration, Home, I’m Darling, to reimagine W. Somerset Maugham’s subversive comedy, The Constant Wife, in a sparkling new version. Rose Leslie (Game of Thrones, Downton Abbey, Vigil) plays Constance, a 1920s heroine with a decidedly modern spirit.

The Constant Wife
The Constant Wife

4.48 PSYCHOSIS

The Other Place, Thursday 10 – Sunday 27 July

A quarter century from its debut, the entire original cast and creative team return to revisit Sarah Kane’s final masterpiece 25 years on. In a co-production with the Royal Court Theatre, directed by award-winning James Macdonald (Waiting for Godot, West End) with original cast members Daniel Evans, Jo McInnes and Madeleine Potter reprising their roles. The production transfers to The Other Place following its run at the Royal Court Theatre Upstairs.

4.48 Psychosis
4.48 Psychosis

THE WINTER’S TALE

RST, Saturday 12 July – Saturday 30 August

Shakespeare's enigmatic story of love, loss and rebirth is directed by Yaël Farber in her RSC debut following acclaimed productions of King Lear and the Olivier-nominated Macbeth for the Almeida Theatre.

AN ACTOR CONVALESCING IN DEVON

Swan Theatre, Sunday 20 July

Richard Nelson’s funny and compelling play transfers to the Swan Theatre after opening in Hampstead in 2024. Written for RSC Associate Artist Paul Jesson, An Actor Convalescing in Devon movingly affirms the healing power of art and the healing art of theatre.

Two Gentlemen of Verona
Two Gentlemen of Verona

THE TWO GENTLEMEN OF VERONA

The Other Place, Monday 4 – Sunday 31 August

Shakespeare’s gloriously silly story of love, friendship and growing up bursts on to the stage of The Other Place in a new 80-minute version directed by Joanna Bowman, Associate Artist at Tron Theatre (Wolfie and Escaped Alone, Tron Theatre; The Inquiry, Chichester Festival Theatre).

Fat Ham
Fat Ham

FAT HAM

Swan Theatre, Friday 15 August – Saturday 13 September

Winner of the Pulitzer Prize for Drama, Fat Ham is a delectable comic tragedy written by the award-winning playwright James Ijames, originally produced Off-Broadway by The Public Theater and National Black Theatre. On Broadway, Fat Ham was nominated for five Tony Awards including Best Play and Best Direction of a Play. Original Direction by Saheem Ali, directed for the Swan Theatre by Sideeq Heard with set design by Maruti Evans.

MEASURE FOR MEASURE

RST, Saturday 13 September – Saturday 25 October

Director Emily Burns returns to the RSC following the success of 2024's Love's Labour's Lost to direct Shakespeare's razor-sharp thriller of hypocrisy and corruption.

Roald Dahl’s

THE BFG

RST, Tuesday 25 November 2025 – Saturday 31 January 2026

Chichester Festival Theatre

Monday 16 March – Sunday 12 April 2026

Roald Dahl’s unforgettable story come to life this winter in a magical new adaptation by Tom Wells (The Kitchen Sink, Jumpers for Goalposts), directed by RSC co-artistic director Daniel Evans, whose previous productions include Quiz, South Pacific and Our Generation.



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