"Shakespeare was once a new writer. His work was shocking, thrilling, bold. We want to nurture, provoke and present the work of writers who are doing the same thing today. We are living through fascinating times – there's a great deal to say and an appetite for big questions and rich ideas.

"Our job is to connect contemporary writers and audiences to the spirit of Shakespeare. He and his contemporaries had a strong sense of the world in which they were living and how it was changing. That's something we inherit directly from them. By including writers and new plays we keep our work new and daring, just as Shakespeare's work was in his own time."

 Erica Whyman

Making new plays and working with writers

Our new writers explore anything from questions about feminism, race or religion to the birth of the free press or the end of war as we know it. This can be brand new plays, large scale musicals, new translations and adaptations and ambitious work for families and for young people.

Season by season we are interested in provoking new thinking about key ideas or moments in our history so we may offer a writer a theme, but we are also open to wholly surprising ideas.

In return for their commitment and ambition we give them the time and resources to write at their fingertips. We individually tailor the play development process to fit the writer and the project. 

Recent, current and future projects

Recent new plays produced include:

• My Neighbour Totoro adapted by Tom Morton-Smith from feature animation by Hayao Miyazaki with music by Joe Hisaishi
• O, Island! by Nina Segal
•  Ivy Tiller: Vicar's Daughter, Squirrel Killer by Bea Roberts
• The Magician's Elephant by Kate DiCamillo, adapted by Nancy Harris and Marc Teitler
• The Boy in the Dress by David Walliams, adapted by Mark Ravenhill, with songs from Robbie Williams and Guy Chambers
• The Whip by Juliet Gilkes Romero
• A Museum in Baghdad by Hannah Khalil
• Crooked Dances by Robin French
• Maydays by David Edgar
• Don Quixote adapted by James Fenton from the novel by Miguel de Cervantes
• #WeAreArrested by Can Dündar, adapted by Pippa Hill and Sophie Ivatts
• Day of the Living by Darren Clark, Amy Draper and Juliet Gilkes Romero
• Kingdom Come by Gemma Brockis and Wendy Hubbard
• Myth by Kirsty Housley and Matt Hartley 
• The Earthworks by Tom Morton Smith 
• The Seven Acts of Mercy by Anders Lustgarten
• The Hypocrite by Richard Bean
• Vice Versa by Phil Porter
• Queen Anne by Helen Edmundson
• Wendy & Peter Pan by Ella Hickson
• Hecuba by Marina Carr 
• Oppenheimer by Tom Morton-Smith
• The Christmas Truce by Phil Porter
• Matilda The Musical by Tim Minchin and Dennis Kelly

New playwrights discovered

This year we have been seeking the stories of our times - the comedies, the tragedies, the untold histories - as part of the 37 Plays national playwriting project, led by the RSC and our partner theatres, giving the public the opportunity to tell their stories

The chosen 37 plays were announced in May, and will be performed script-in-hand across the UK and online in autumn 2023. 

Find out more

Script Policy

We don't accept unsolicited scripts; instead we identify writers we are interested in working with by closely monitoring new work across the UK. If you have a play reading, workshop sharing, or show coming up and you would like to invite us, you can email us at newwork@rsc.org.uk (giving us as much notice as possible).