The Complete Works - the biggest theatrical celebration in the RSC's history
From April 2006 to April 2007, the RSC hosted a year-long Festival of the entire Shakespeare canon at its Stratford-upon-Avon home. The Company invited theatre companies from across the world and around the UK to join it in a unique celebration of Shakespeare's works.
The Complete Works was 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 were staged by the RSC and the festival was also a platform for international artists such as Peter Stein and Yukio Ninagawa.
Companies from Germany, Japan, Poland, South Africa, India, Russia, South America, USA, Italy, China and the Middle East all took part in the festival. Joining them were some of the UK's most exciting theatre artists and interpreters of Shakespeare, with companies including Propeller, Kneehigh, aandbc, and Forkbeard Fantasy all participating in The Complete Works.
The Complete Works will be remembered as a defining moment in the RSC's history, and the legacies of the festival can be seen in the 2007/2008 Season: ensemble theatre-making, international collaborations, the celebration of new work alongside Shakespeare and an open air programme in the summer.
