The Royal Shakespeare Company has announced the full programme for its year-long Complete Works Festival in Stratford-upon-Avon. The festival is the first time that all of Shakespeare’s plays and poems have been staged at the same event.
With 23 RSC shows, 17 international productions and 14 by UK-based visiting companies, the RSC is gearing up to host what will be one of the major international cultural events of 2006.
A complete at a glance schedule of the Complete Works Festival, from April 2006 - March 2007 is available to download, along with an A to Z of the Complete Works Festival.
RSC productions
Onstage the festival opens in the Royal Shakespeare Theatre with Nancy Meckler's production of Romeo and Juliet. Rupert Evans and Morven Christie make their RSC debuts as the star-crossed lovers and Sorcha Cusack returns to the RSC as Juliet's nurse. In the Swan Theatre, Patrick Stewart and Harriet Walter take on the title roles in Gregory Doran's Antony and Cleopatra.
As well as the productions already announced, the RSC has confirmed that it will also be staging the following productions: Coriolanus directed by Gregory Doran; Julius Caesar directed by Sean Holmes; King John directed by Josie Rourke; Much Ado About Nothing directed by Marianne Elliott; Richard III directed by Michael Boyd; Pericles and The Winter’s Tale directed by Dominic Cooke.
The final production as part of the Complete Works Festival will be King Lear, directed by Trevor Nunn and with Sir Ian McKellen in the title role. King Lear will run in repertoire in The Courtyard Theatre from March 2007.
New casting
- Tamsin Greig and Joseph Millson as Beatrice and Benedick in Marianne Elliott’s Much Ado About Nothing
- Patrick Stewart plays Prospero in Rupert Goold’s production of The Tempest
- Finbar Lynch returns to the RSC after nearly 12 years as Cassius in Julius Caesar. Directed by Sean Holmes and with John Light as Brutus
- Desmond Barrit joins Judi Dench (Mistress Quickly) as Falstaff in Merry Wives The Musical directed by Gregory Doran and with music by Paul Englishby and lyrics by Ranjit Bolt
- William Houston and Janet Suzman make a welcome return to the RSC to play Coriolanus and Volumnia in Coriolanus.
Shakespeare from around the world
Newly confirmed highlights among the visiting companies include:
- New York-based theatre company, Tiny Ninja Theater, performs Hamlet for the first time in the UK using an inch-high cast of small, plastic ninja figurines
- The award-winning Compagnia Pippo Delbono from Italy performs the UK premiere of Enrico V, inspired by Henry V. Involving cabaret, comedy, music and dance, the cast will include a chorus of non-professional actors
- Multi award-winning Teatr Piesn Kozla (Song of the Goat Theatre) from Poland, presents its current work in progress, based on Macbeth
- The legendary Berliner Ensemble – which inspired the creation of the modern RSC - presents its production (first staged in 2000) of Richard II directed by the company’s artistic director, Claus Peymann
- Cardboard Citizens applies its unique brand of theatre to Shakespeare’s supposedly unfinished text Timon of Athens
- RSC founder, Sir Peter Hall, makes a welcome return to Stratford after an absence of nearly 11 years, with his first UK production of Measure for Measure staged by his own company
- Sir Peter’s son, director Edward Hall, also returns to Stratford with his all-male company, Propeller, presenting The Taming of the Shrew
- Samuel West, the newly appointed artistic director at Sheffield Theatres, brings his new company to Stratford for the first time with As You Like It
- Yellow Earth in association with Shanghai Dramatic Arts Centre gives King Lear a modern spin in its bilingual (English and Mandarin) production
- Chekhov International Theatre Festival in association with Cheek by Jowl performs its all-male Russian version of Twelfth Night
- Theatre for a New Audience (TFANA) continue their relationship with the RSC and present their UK premiere of The Merchant of Venice with Academy Award-winner F. Murray Abraham as Shylock.
Events programme
A full programme of other events including: talks and demonstrations with actors, directors and RSC practitioners; debates; live music; backstage tours; workshops and family and schools events will be available from http://www.rsccompleteworks.co.uk/ or from the RSC Ticket Hotline on 0870 609 1110.
The Complete Works Festival downloads
An 'at a glance' complete schedule of the Complete Works Festival, from April 2006 - March 2007 is available to download, along with an A to Z of the Complete Works Festival.
