During the 1960s, writers at the forefront of their profession, including Harold Pinter, Edward Albee, John Whiting and Peter Weiss helped to shape the Company's ambition.

In 1974, Buzz Goodbody lead the opening of The Other Place, the RSC’s experimental space with her production of Hamlet. Despite her early death, the fervour and drive with which Buzz championed the symbiosis of new and classical theatre drives the Company to this day.

The 1980s saw a run of new work which questioned the shifting political landscape. Peter Flannery’s epic Our Friends In The North and Peter Nichol’s Poppy cast an inquisitive eye on our past and present, while adaptations like Christopher Hampton’s Les Liasons Dangereuses and David Edgar’s Nicholas Nickleby showed that new writing could be a viable commercial, as well as artistic, success.

In the 90s, new work remained decidedly political – Pentecost by David Edgar and Anne Devlin’s searing After Easter both debuted at The Other Place, as well as work such as The Herbal Bed, Peter Whelan’s examination of a very local scandal and Biyi Bandele’s adaptation of Oroonoko by Aphra Benn.

Today, new writing is still very much at the heart of the Company's work. New plays have the ability to reflect Shakespeare, to transform him and to illuminate meaning. Plays about contemporary experience sit alongside Shakespeare’s universality as much as adaptations of plays by Shakespeare’s contemporaries reflect recognisable modern experience.

Our current plans for the future include a large scale piece of new musical theatre, several new translations and adaptations by classical and contemporary international writers, work for young people, and new plays covering a variety of issues from American history to the politics of English football.