Three new Shakespeare productions are coming to the Royal Shakespeare Theatre and today we can show you the full cast of the three plays together for the first time, realising Artistic Director Gregory Doran’s ambition for a new collaborative cross-cast company which reflects the nation. 

• As You Like It opens 14 February - Kimberley Sykes directs a fierce, exhilarating version of Shakespeare’s romantic comedy.
• The Taming of the Shrew opens 8 March – Justin Audibert turns this energetic comedy of gender and materialism on its head to offer a fresh perspective on its portrayal of hierarchy and power.
• Measure For Measure opens 28 June – Gregory Doran directs a Shakespeare play with astonishing contemporary resonance.

All three Shakespeare productions will play in the Royal Shakespeare Theatre, then tour in repertoire for the first time to six regional theatres later in the year – venues to be announced soon.

Speaking last September, when the details of the season were announced, Gregory said: “This season reflects the power of storytelling in its most essential form, with the actor at the centre of the work. With Justin Audibert and Kimberley Sykes, I am creating a company which reflects the nation in terms of gender, ethnicity, regionality, and disability - 27 actors who will all appear in two out of the three plays.”

Creating the image - behind the scenes

To create the images for the three shows we brought the cast for all three productions to Stratford-upon-Avon, where we built a photography set in the Studio Theatre at The Other Place. Explore the gallery below to see what happened behind the scenes and how it all came together.  

As well as photographing the actors, we also collected video footage from them talking about themselves and their roles, to be released shortly. Watch the video below to see more of what happened behind the scenes on the day.