We believe that Shakespeare is for everyone and every year we inspire and captivate audiences through amazing experiences of Shakespeare’s plays and live theatre.

Through our national and international tours, regular cinema screenings, our 246 strong Associate Schools network, delivered in collaboration with our 11 long-term partner theatres, our free Schools' Broadcasts and Live Lessons, our 550 young Shakespeare Ambassadors, and our Next Generation talent development programme for young people, we are unlocking Shakespeare to transform the lives of people across the UK, so they can build a life-long relationship with Shakespeare and live theatre.

Young people from across the country performed alongside our professional company to play the Chorus in Romeo and Juliet which toured to Norwich, Newcastle, Bradford, Nottingham, Blackpool, Cardiff and Glasgow following its run in Stratford-upon-Avon and London. Selected from our pool of 246 Associate Schools, which represent some of the most deprived areas of the country, the young cast members were integral to the production which was created with a young audience in mind. The experience had a powerful impact, with many young people joining the chorus including Syrian refugees and our Associate School Partners at Welcombe Hills special needs school.

Working with our touring partners we staged an integrated British Sign Language (BSL) performance at every venue for the first time, opening our work to d/Deaf audiences all over the UK.

The cast was lead by Karen Fishwick and Bally Gill, and we were delighted that Bally won first prize at the the Ian Charleson awards, which recognise the best classical performances in Britain by young actors.

‘Truly excellent and great for my teenagers to see’

Audience member

Oil drums, metal sheets and an aluphone were just some of the many percussion instruments used by Evelyn Glennie to create an expressive score for Troilus and Cressida. Our ground-breaking production cast 50/50 men and women, and we welcomed Deaf actor Charlotte Arrowsmith to play Cassandra in British Sign Language. This was the start of Charlotte’s journey with the Company and she returned to be part of our Summer 2019 season appearing in As You Like It and The Taming of the Shrew, which performed in Stratford-upon-Avon, before heading to London and on an ambitious three-play UK tour alongside Measure For Measure.

‘Stunning… superb acting, as always’

Audience member

Our June Mischief Festival showcased two very different stories exploring global questions of truth, corruption and freedom. #WeAreArrested by Can Dündar, adapted by Pippa Hill and Sophie Ivatts, told the story of Can’s arrest, imprisonment and eventual exile by the Turkish Government in 2016. Day of the Living, a devised musical piece created by Darren Clark, Amy Draper and Juliet Gilkes Romero, explored and commemorated the 43 students who were forcefully disappeared in 2014 in Mexico. This kind of politically explicit programming felt urgent and welcome to our audiences in turbulent times.

#WeAreArrested will have a limited run at the acclaimed off-West End venue, Arcola Theatre in East London.

‘It was quite simply amazing – one of the most powerful pieces of theatre to see in a long time’

Audience member on #WeAreArrested

We created a new version of Molière’s French classic comedy, Tartuffe, working with BAFTA and Emmy Award-winning writers Anil Gupta and Richard Pinto. Relocated to the Pakistani Muslim community in Birmingham, the production played in the Swan Theatre alongside the mighty Tamburlaine and the dark satire of Timon of Athens. The production won Eastern Eye’s Arts, Culture and Theatre Award for Best Production.

Written by Sam Kenyon, Miss Littlewood was our first ever musical in the Swan Theatre. It explored the life and times of the anarchic revolutionary of 20th century theatre, Joan Littlewood. The Times described it as ‘Pulsatingly entertaining. Magnificent’ whilst The Guardian said it ‘Introduces a new generation to the huge debt British theatre owes Joan Littlewood’.

Our work to create daring and brilliant new musicals that captivate audiences continued with the development of The Boy in The Dress, from David Walliams' novel with the script by Mark Ravenhill and music and lyrics by Robbie Williams and Guy Chambers. The family production is directed by our Artistic Director Gregory Doran. Its world premiere takes place in Stratford-upon-Avon in November 2019.

Time To Listen was the most comprehensive research study of its kind, a collaboration with Tate and the University of Nottingham, examining the benefits of an arts and culture rich education to young people.

The research analysed 6,000 responses from young people aged 14-18, and 63 teachers over three years. The overwhelming response was that arts and culture in schools really matters to young people. Arts subjects are one of the only places where they feel able to make mistakes, develop critical thinking, creativity, confidence, well-being and empathy. 

The rapid demise of these subjects continues in many state schools and employers say that they are missing these important attributes in new recruits. We launched five urgent calls to action, and our campaign continues to grow momentum. We were delighted to have achieved one of those calls to action, when the Russell Group of universities discarded their facilitating subjects list.

‘…it’s an excellent resource for developing an understanding of Shakespeare’s plays and revising for exams... It’s fun, engaging and interesting... This website needs to be in everyone’s bookmarks!’

RSC Shakespeare Ambassador

‘It was a special treat to see such a first-class performance in the community. To have our daughter involved made it even more special. Her eyes were alight during the performance.’

Audience member

We created a mixed reality experience, through our collaboration with Magic Leap, featuring cutting-edge volumetric capture and an original musical score by Jessica Curry. Actor Robert Gilbert’s performance of the Seven Ages of Man speech from As You Like It, with original music by Jessica Curry, was captured through volumetric technology with audiences viewing the experience through the Magic Leap One device.

The creation is a starting point for us to explore how we make theatre with the new technologies from gaming and other industries such as motion capture, photogrammetry and volumetric capture.

Our Live From Stratford-upon-Avon Broadcasts of Macbeth, Romeo and Juliet, The Merry Wives of Windsor and Troilus and Cressida reached a combined audience of 121,280 including broadcasts in China.

This is just one of the ways in which we unlock Shakespeare for audiences around the world. In classrooms young people also experienced our productions on screen through our free Schools’ Broadcasts. Record numbers tuned in for Macbeth, 83,952, and Romeo and Juliet, 66,514.

We followed the success of our pioneering Live Lesson for Romeo and Juliet with an insight into Macbeth. Rehearsal rooms are spaces of intense learning similar to the classroom and the Live Lessons give students the chance to join us on our creative journey giving them a better understanding of the play, and a genuine insight into how we arrive at some of the creative choices made. We were joined by 25,000 young viewers for the two Live Lessons.

After successful runs in the UK, America, Australia, New Zealand, South Africa and Singapore, our production of Matilda The Musical reached South Korea for the first foreign language production of the show.

We launched our UK and Ireland tour of the production performing to audiences in Leicester, Birmingham, Manchester, Bristol, Southampton, Edinburgh, Norwich, Dublin, Sunderland, Milton Keynes, Cardiff, Plymouth and Bradford.

Winner of 95 international awards, including 23 for Best Musical, Matilda The Musical has now been seen by over 9 million people worldwide, having toured to 75 cities.

Our productions using new Chinese translations of The Tempest, Twelfth Night and Hamlet opened in China with UK directors working alongside Chinese creative teams. They were produced as part of our pioneering Shakespeare Folio Translation Project.

Since 2015 we have worked with writers, translators, academics and theatres in the UK and China to create new Mandarin translations of Shakespeare’s plays that are actor friendly and engaging for audiences. Our ambition is to translate Shakespeare’s plays individually to create a new folio edition of Chinese translations, in time to celebrate the 400th anniversary of the publication of Shakespeare's First Folio in 2023.

Visitors came from around the world to enjoy all that we have to offer. Music, dancing and food filled our January Winter Revel as 400 people joined us for the first event we have staged of this kind.

Inside Out, our outdoor installation for the summer months, attracted new people to the building. We welcomed 19,000 people to Inside Out over six weeks, trying a range of free events and activities, including in The Swirl, a new performance space which was home to outdoor pop-up theatre and was constructed in our workshops.

We were delighted when the UK's leading full mask company, Vamos Theatre, performed at The Other Place to shift attitudes of those living with dementia, and to support our staff as they welcome people to our theatres.

The Company create productions based on real life stories which are rooted strongly in social research, and Finding Joy focused on people living with dementia. The play helped those living with dementia to reconnect and be stimulated through music, movement, laughter, storytelling and reminiscence.

‘The memory I have of one lady, snuggled into Michael's chest with a look of absolute pleasure as he carefully danced with her will stay with me forever. She later confided that she hadn't danced with anyone since her husband had died, ten years previously.’

Audience member

We received an incredible response, including over 30,000 donations, to the restoration and redevelopment of our Costume Workshop. We are delighted to have achieved the fundraising target of £3m and would like to thank all our supporters for helping to secure the future of costume making in Stratford-upon-Avon.

Construction work on the Costume Workshop site has begun, and the building will reopen in Summer 2020. For the first time, visitors will be able to experience our world-class costume workshop for themselves through tours, digital experiences and education, participation and outreach opportunities. 

The restoration and redevelopment of the Costume Workshop is supported using public funding by the National Lottery through Arts Council England, The National Lottery Heritage Fund, and The Government’s Local Growth Fund through the Coventry and Warwickshire Local Enterprise Partnership, with additional support from the Garfield Weston Foundation, Lydia and Manfred Gorvy, The Foyle Foundation, The Bernard Sunley Foundation, Coats – Official Thread Supplier to the RSC and other generous supporters.