You can now use our image library to search through a treasure trove of pictures from 1936 to today. They include photos of Judi Dench as Viola in Twelfth Night, Ian McKellen as a young Romeo, Meera Syal as Beatrice in Much Ado About Nothing and Patrick Stewart as Mark Antony in Antony and Cleopatra. 

The archive, which is publicly available online for the first time, spans more than 200 productions of Shakespeare's plays in over 80 years of theatre history in Stratford-upon-Avon and London. You can search by:

• Favourite actor
• Year
• Director
• Keyword, eg. ‘revenge’ or ‘modern dress’

Then download photos free of charge for personal use, education use or private study, or request high-resolution images for commercial use.

We will continue to add pictures to the library, as we work our way through staging Shakespeare’s canon of plays.

You can also see photos from our archive through social media – our weekly posts on Instagram and Facebook #throwbackthursdays, #rscthrualens and #flashbackfridays showcase some of the stunning images from our past productions.

browse our library

Find out more about using RSC images.