From April 2006 to April 2007, the RSC is hosting a year-long Festival of the entire Shakespeare canon at its Stratford-upon-Avon home. The Festival embraces film, new writing, and contemporary music, as well as a comprehensive survey of theatre artists currently interpreting Shakespeare worldwide. The Complete Works celebrates the truly global reach of the greatest writer in the English language, and is the first time all 37 plays, the sonnets and the long poems have been presented at the same event.

Fifteen of the productions in The Complete Works are being staged by the RSC but the festival is also a platform for international artists like Peter Stein and Yukio Ninagawa who have made a lasting impact on the performance of Shakespeare. Joining them are some of the UK’s most exciting theatre artists and interpreters of Shakespeare, with companies like Propeller, Kneehigh, aandbc, and Forkbeard Fantasy all participating in The Complete Works.

Visiting companies from South and North America, Russia, the Middle East, Asia, Africa and across Europe are exploring Shakespeare’s continuing influence on cultures around the world. The Festival aims to open up what the RSC intends will be a richer dialogue with international theatre companies, promoting future collaborations especially with other ensemble theatre makers.

Michael Boyd, Artistic Director of the RSC, says:

“While there will be some who'll relish the once-in-a-lifetime opportunity to see all the plays in one Festival, The Complete Works is not only for Shakespeare aficionados. The Festival looks set to be the most extensive celebration of Shakespeare’s genius – at once a national knees-up for the RSC's house playwright and a survey of the different approaches to his work from around the world. Our ambition is to stage one of the most significant cultural festivals of the year in Stratford-upon-Avon."