ROYAL SHAKESPEARE COMPANY ANNOUNCES FURTHER PROGRAMMING FOR SUMMER 2023
DOWNLOAD IMAGES OF THE SWAN THEATRE PROGRAMME HERE
DOWNLOAD IMAGES OF RST PROGRAMME HERE
- Swan Theatre re-opening season continues with four extraordinary human dramas which offer new perspectives on familiar narratives:
- Tanika Gupta’s The Empress; a new production directed by Pooja Ghai opening in the Swan Theatre, Stratford-upon-Avon with a transfer to the Lyric Hammersmith Theatre
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Falkland Sound - a new play by Brad Birch directed by Aaron Parsons telling the story of a rural community turned upside down through an international crisis.
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The Merchant of Venice 1936; Watford Palace Theatre’s ground-breaking production of Shakespeare’s classic relocated to London’s East End. Directed by Brigid Larmour and featuring Tracy-Ann Oberman as Shylock.
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Cowbois - a rollicking queer cowboy show from the writer of I, Joan and Bitch Boxer; Charlie Josephine, co-directed by Charlie Josephine and Sean Holmes.
- Live at the RSC returns, in association with Underbelly and Orchestra of the Swan featuring a mixed bill of live comedy, music and discussion including Fern Brady, Nina Conti, Ivo Graham, Jessica Fostekew, Sarah Keyworth and improv comedy troupe; Austentatious.
- New on sale: Omar Elerian’s As You Like It, and Wils Wilson’s Macbeth in the Royal Shakespeare Theatre
- Next Generation ACT Company present Hamlet in The Other Place, directed by Paul Ainsworth
The Royal Shakespeare Company (RSC) has today released further details of its upcoming Summer 2023 programme which features four vivid and ambitious new play commissions, running in the Swan Theatre from July. Two world stage premieres, a new co-commission with Watford Palace Theatre and HOME Manchester, and a timely revival of a 21st century classic are brought sharply into focus in 2023. These four plays offer fresh and, at times, radical new perspectives on well-known stories and the pervading political and cultural narratives that surround them.
The news follows the announcement of the re-opening of the Swan Theatre from 1 April 2023 with the world-premiere stage production of Hamnet, based on the award-winning novel by Maggie O’Farrell, adapted by Lolita Chakrabarti and directed by RSC Acting Artistic Director, Erica Whyman. Ticket availability for this production is now extremely limited.
The Company also announced the full performance schedule for its upcoming productions of As You Like It directed by Omar Elerian and Macbeth directed by Wils Wilson which will run in the Royal Shakespeare Theatre from Saturday 17 June – Saturday 5 August and Saturday 19 August – Saturday 14 October consecutively. They will be joined by the previously announced Hamlet, chosen by Next Generation Act, the RSC’s young company for talented young people from across the country from backgrounds under-represented in the arts. Hamlet, directed by Paul Ainsworth, will run in The Other Place from Friday 28 – Saturday 29 July 2023.
All Stratford-upon-Avon productions go on sale to the public on Monday 13 March, with priority booking available from Wednesday 1 March. Tickets for The Empress at the Lyric Hammersmith Theatre are on sale from today (Tuesday 21 February).
Erica Whyman, Acting Artistic Director of the Royal Shakespeare Company (RSC) said:
‘This season is a celebration of the power of theatre and of stories we should have heard or should have listened to, but we haven’t dared.
‘We live in a volatile, fractious world. Shakespeare would have recognised its energy; he too knew a world of accelerating change, inventive and exhilarating, but also furious, divisive, unequal, uneasy. The RSC has always believed it essential to support and celebrate the living writers that have their fingers on this unease, who can expose new ways of seeing our history and conjure a brave new world that we don’t yet understand. Now more than ever it takes courage to speak these truths, as new cultural wars roar and mutter.
‘All four Swan productions are surprising, illuminating, strong of mind and big of heart. Falkland Sound by Brad Birch explores with compassion the human experience of the Islanders during the conflict, and the ferocious politics which informed the British response. The Empress by Tanika Gupta – now on the GCSE syllabus - presents an extraordinary friendship and a beautiful love story, whilst forensically exposing the blithe injustice of empire. Tracy-Ann Oberman’s Shylock in The Merchant of Venice 1936 is breathtakingly honest about the antisemitism described in the play and its new setting in 1930s Cable Street reveals a shameful slice of our history. And Cowbois by Charlie Josephine is a glorious unfolding of desire and hope – a Western like you’ve never seen it before - and an ingenious metaphor for the flowering of human potential that is possible when we can truly be ourselves.
‘The Swan has a long and distinguished history of staging expansive, thoughtful new plays alongside plays by Shakespeare and his contemporaries. It is an epic theatre in which you can create electric intimacy and a space in which to tell stories which really matter.’
Swan Theatre
Joining the previously announced Hamnet, the Swan Theatre re-opening season continues with a new production of The Empress by Tanika Gupta, Artistic Associate of Lyric Hammersmith Theatre, directed by Pooja Ghai, Artistic Director of Tamasha, from Friday 7 July – Friday 15 September.
The production will visit the Lyric Hammersmith Theatre for four weeks from Wednesday 4 – Saturday 28 October before returning to conclude its run in Stratford-upon-Avon from Wednesday 1– Saturday 18 November.
Set in 1887, the year of Queen Victoria’s Golden Jubilee, the play tells the story of the sixteen year-old Rani Das, ayah (nursemaid) to an English family, who arrives at Tilbury docks after a long voyage from India, to start a new life in Britain. On the boat, Rani befriends a lascar (sailor), an Indian politician and a royal servant destined to serve the Queen. Full of hopes and dreams of what lies ahead, they each embark on an extraordinary journey.
Spanning a period of 13 years over the ‘Golden Era’ of Empire, this epic drama takes audiences from the rugged gangways of Tilbury docks to the grandeur of Queen Victoria’s Palace, whilst unveiling the long and embedded culture of British Asian history which continues to shape our society today.
The original production, directed by Emma Rice for the RSC, first premiered in the Swan Theatre in 2013. The play-text was recently added to the GCSE English Literature syllabus following a campaign spearheaded by the RSC's Youth Advisory Board and one of four new plays by writers of colour to better reflect the diversity of playwriting in the UK. The text was introduced by AQA in 2022, the largest examination board in England. Tanika’s 2019 production of A Doll’s House was previously added to the national curriculum by Pearson in 2021 alongside works by Bola Agbaje, In-Sook Chappell and Roy Williams.
Tanika Gupta has written over 25 stage plays that have been produced in major theatres across the UK. Her critically acclaimed adaptation of Ibsen’s A Doll’s House set in colonial Calcutta launched Rachel O’Riordan’s first season as Artistic Director of the Lyric Hammersmith Theatre in 2019.
Tanika was awarded an MBE for Services to Drama and is a Fellow of the Royal Society of Literature. Tanika is an Artistic Associate at the Lyric Hammersmith Theatre and was recently announced as one of two new Writers in Residence at The Bush Theatre in 2023.
For further details, visit www.tanikagupta.com
Pooja Ghai is Artistic Director of Tamasha, and artistic associate at Kali. Previous to this she was Associate Director at Theatre Royal Stratford East. Her most recent directing credits include Hakawatis and Lions and Tigers at the Sam Wanamaker Playhouse; Lotus Beauty at Hampstead Theatre; Seriously Annoying by Mark Thomas for Tin Cat Productions, 2020 at Tara Theatre, Approaching Empty at the Kiln (Tamasha/Kiln/Live Theatre) and Rapunzel, Counting Stars and House of in Between at Theatre Royal Stratford East. Awards include Best Director for Lions and Tigers at the Eastern Eye Arts, Culture and Theatre Awards (ACTA) in 2017. Pooja is a Dramaturg for Voxed, Meeting, Out Late, Vestige and It’s Not Me.
The Empress will feature Design by Rosa Maggiora, Lighting by Matt Haskins, Music and Sound by Ben and Max Ringham, Movement by Wayne Parsons, Fights and Intimacy by Rachel Bown-Williams and Ruth Cooper-Brown.
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Alongside The Empress and building on the tradition of premiering new work in the Swan Theatre, Brad Birch’s new play Falkland Sound is staged from Saturday 5 August – Saturday 16 September 2023. The production will be directed by Aaron Parsons with Design by Aldo Vázquez and additional creative team to be announced.
This timely and evocative play tells the story of a community and way of life turned upside down following the invasion of the Falkland Islands by Argentine forces in April 1982.
About half the size of Wales, populated by fewer than two thousand people, with conditions so hostile that trees struggle to grow, everyday life on these strange and beguiling islands is changed forever as two powerful nations fight for the right to claim sovereignty in this lyrical and deeply personal story of empire, community, and what it means to live in someone else’s metaphor.
Inspired by the real-life testimonies of those who lived through this seismic moment in history, Brad’s research for the play included a 10-day visit to the Falkland Islands in 2018, during which time he travelled across the country, interviewing the islanders and immersing himself in their unique way of life.
Brad Birch is an award-winning playwright and screenwriter from Wales whose work has been produced in the UK, USA, Japan, Russia, Germany, Spain, Italy and Malta. His plays include Missing People, Black Mountain, The Brink, Gardening: For the Unfulfilled and Alienated (winner of the Edinburgh Fringe First award, 2013) and Tender Bolus.
In 2016, he was awarded the Harold Pinter Commission at the Royal Court. His plays are published by Methuen Drama and his first anthology, Plays One, was published in 2018. He is currently under commission with Rooks Nest and Film4.
Aaron Parsons works as a director and movement director. His directing include Welcome To Thebes (Bristol School of Acting), Tales From Shakespeare (RSC), Romeo and Juliet, Pericles (Bristol Old Vic Theatre School) Julius Caesar and Romeo and Juliet (Reading Between the Lines), Home (Bristol School of Acting), This way up (Travelling Light Theatre Company), , Robin Hood (New Mutiny), Hillstories (Travelling Light Theatre Company and Wyldwood Arts), Butterfly (Prime Theatre & Light and Lark Theatre), The Odyssey (Prime Theatre), Walk Ashore (Thimble Theatre), The Laramie Project (Prime Theatre), The River (Bristol Old Vic Theatre School) and Nightlife (Wrong Shoes).
As an Associate Director, Aaron’s credits include Richard III (directed by Gregory Doran), Henry VI: Rebellion and Henry VI: Wars of the Roses (directed by Owen Horsley) in 2022 and Erica Whyman’s stage-to-screen production of The Winter’s Tale (2021). As an Assistant Director for the RSC, Aaron’s credits include Swingin’ The Dream and Troy Story (2020) and the stage premiere of Robin French’s Crooked Dances (2021) directed by Elizabeth Freestone.
Aaron was Movement Director with Anna Morrissey on The Trials (Donmar Warehouse) and was Movement Consultant on Faith (a Coventry City of Culture Trust and Royal Shakespeare Company co-production). Other movement credits include When They Go Low (NT Connections and the Sherman Theatre) Salad Days, Hanged for Love and Serious Money (all for Bristol Old Vic Theatre School).
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Tracy-Ann Oberman returns to the Royal Shakespeare Company from Thursday 21 September – Saturday 7 October in a new production of Shakespeare’s classic The Merchant of Venice directed and adapted by Brigid Larmour from an idea by Tracy Ann-Oberman and co-created by them both.
Presented by Watford Palace Theatre in association with HOME Manchester and developed with support from the Royal Shakespeare Company, this gripping new production offers a rare and vivid insight into a dark chapter in our history, all too relevant to Britain today.
Fascism is sweeping across Europe, and Oswald Mosley’s British Union of Fascists threatens a paramilitary march through the Jewish East End. Shylock (Tracy Ann-Oberman), a widowed survivor of anti-Semitic pogroms in Russia, hopes to give her daughter Jessica a better life. She runs a pawnbroking business from her house in Cable Street where Mosley will march. Charismatic heroine Portia and the Merchant himself, Antonio, are aristocratic Mosleyites, their playground is piano bars at the Ritz, bias cut silk gowns, white tie and tails. As these worlds collide, a struggle for morals, power and prejudice ensues with devastating consequences.
The Merchant of Venice 1936 is directed by Brigid Larmour with Costume and Set Design by Liz Cooke. Lighting Designis by Rory Beaton and Sound Design by Sarah Weltman. The Composer is Erran Baron Cohen. Movement is by Richard Katz and Video Design is by Greta Zabulyte.
The production opens at Watford Palace Theatre on Monday 27 February 2023, before transferring to HOME in Manchester where it runs from Wednesday 15 March. The production will tour to venues across the UK throughout the Autumn of 2023.
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Completing the season is Charlie Josephine’s Cowbois running from Saturday 14 October – Saturday 18 November in the Swan Theatre.
Co-directed by Charlie Josephine and Sean Holmes (Associate Artistic Director of Shakespeare’s Globe) with Design by Grace Smart, this rollicking queer cowboy show follows hot on the hoofs of the critically-acclaimed I, Joan, which premiered at Shakespeare’s Globe in April 2022 and was described by the Guardian as a ‘joyous few hours…performed with kinetic vigour’ and by the Evening Standard as ‘a thrilling piece of theatre… expansive, unifying and joyful’.
Part gun-slinging Western, part love-story for our times, this playful and exuberant celebration of queer love, freedom and self-expression tells the story of handsome bandit Jack Cannon, whose unprompted arrival in the sleepy frontier town inspires a gender revolution and starts a fire under the petticoat of every one of the town’s repressed inhabitants.
Charlie Josephine is an actor and a writer. Their award-winning work includes Bitch Boxer (Soho Theatre Young Writers Award 2012, Old Vic New Voices Edinburgh Season 2012, British Council Showcase 2013, Holden Street Theatre’s Award 2013, Clonmel Theatre Award 2014 and Adelaide Fringe Award 2014), BLUSH ((Underbelly Untapped Edinburgh Season 2016 and The Stage Edinburgh Award 2016) and Massive (2020). They are an associate artist at the NSDF and the current writer in residence at Headlong Theatre.
Charlie’s current work includes Birds and Bees which opened at the Sheffield Crucible on 25tJanuary 2023. Upcoming productions include Flies which will open at the Shoreditch Town Hall in February 2023, with Boundless Theatre, and One Of Them Ones which will tour between March and May with Pentabus. They are also currently developing a new feature biopic with Salon Pictures.
As an actor, Charlie was last seen on the Royal Shakespeare Theatre stage playing Mercutio in Erica Whyman’s 2019 touring production of Romeo and Juliet and as Bardolph in Fiona Laird’s The Merry Wives of Windsor. Other acting credits include An Oak Tree (Warwick Arts Centre); Buckets (Orange Tree Theatre); Secret Theatre (Lyric Hammersmith) and Julius Caesar (Donmar Warehouse).
Sean Holmes is the Associate Artistic Director of Shakespeare’s Globe. Prior to this, he was the Artistic Director of the Lyric Hammersmith. Previous work for Shakespeare’s Globe includes: The Winter’s Tale (2023) The Tempest (2022), Hamlet (2021) Metamorphoses (2021) A Midsummer Night’s Dream (2019 and 2021) and Henry VI and Richard III co-directed with Ilinca Radulian (2019). He has recently directed Death of a Salesman at Parco Theatre, Toyko and the World Premiere of Simon Stephen's Fortune at the Metropolitan Theatre, Toyko.
Work for the Lyric Hammersmith includes: The Seagull, Terror, Shopping and Fucking, Bugsy Malone, A Midsummer Night’s Dream (on UK tour; with the Royal Exchange Manchester, Brisbane Festival and Dublin International Festival); Herons, Secret Theatre Shows 1, 2, 3, 5 and 7, Cinderella, Desire Under the Elms, Morning, Have I None, Saved, Blasted (Olivier Award 2011 for Outstanding Achievement in an Affiliate Theatre), A Thousand Stars Explode in the Sky, Ghost Stories (also Duke of York’s, Liverpool Playhouse, Panasonic Theatre, Toronto and Arts Theatre), Three Sisters and Comedians.
In 2016 he directed The Plough and the Stars at the Abbey Theatre, Dublin (also Irish/US Tour). Sean Holmes was an Associate Director of the Oxford Stage Company from 2001 to 2006 and has also worked at the National Theatre, RSC, Tricycle, Royal Court, Donmar Warehouse, Chichester Festival Theatre and the Abbey Theatre, Dublin.
Royal Shakespeare Theatre
Joining the previously announced As You Like It and Macbeth in the Royal Shakespeare Theatre, Live at the RSC returns from Wednesday 31 May – Sunday 4 June in association with Orchestra of the Swan and Underbelly.
The programme opens with a unique performance by Orchestra of the Swan who present Red Sky at Sunrise: Laurie Lee in Words & Music. Red Sky at Sunrise follows Lee's extraordinary journey through his much-loved trilogy, Cider with Rosie, As I Walked Out One Midsummer Morning, and A Moment of War, from growing up in Gloucestershire, to fighting with the International Brigades in the Spanish Civil War. Laurie Lee is performed by Anton Lesser and Charlie Hamblett, with music from Orchestra of The Swan.
The festival also features appearances from British Comedy award-winning ventriloquist Nina Conti, award-winning comedian Mark Watson plus, direct from the West End, improvised comedy show; Austentatious inspired by the novels of Jane Austen.
The festival includes solo shows and mixed bill shows with performances from BBC New Comedy award-finalist Fern Brady, Edinburgh Comedy Award-nominee and star of Mock The Week, Live at The Apollo and 8 Out of 10 Cats Does Countdown Jess Fostekew, Ivo Graham (the youngest ever winner of the prestigious So You Think You’re Funny award for new acts at the Edinburgh Fringe) and award-winning stand-up comedian Sarah Keyworth (Are You A Boy or A Girl, BBC Radio 4, Dark House, Amazon Prime) with further acts to be announced.
Tickets for the festival go on sale on Tuesday 11 April at 10am with further programming to be announced.
ENDS
For more press information about the RSC please contact:
Kate Evans, Media and Communications Manager (Royal Shakespeare Company) on 07920 244 434, email: kate.evans@rsc.org.uk
For further press information about The Lyric, please contact Georgie Grant (Kate Morley PR) on 07833 296 856, email: georgie@katemorleypr.com
BOOKING INFORMATION:
Gold Patrons Wednesday 1 March 2023
Silver Patrons Thursday 2 March 2023
Bronze Patrons Friday 3 March 2023
Members Monday 6 March 2023
Subscribers Friday 10 March 2023
Public Booking Monday 13 March 2023
LISTINGS INFORMATION:
ROYAL SHAKESPEARE THEATRE
As You Like It
Saturday 17 June – Saturday 5 August
Press night: Tuesday 27 June at 7pm
By William Shakespeare
Director Omar Elerian
Designer Ana Inés Jabares Pita
Lighting Jackie Shemesh
Sound Elena Peña
In Director Omar Elerian’s playful new take, a company of veteran RSC actors perform one of Shakespeare’s most joyous tales. On a stage transformed into a simple rehearsal room, the actors gather to conjure the memory of a long gone show, celebrating the magic of theatre and its unique power to make our imagination soar.
They’ve all taken part in As You Like It before, but never like this.
Anything goes in this playground, where nothing is as it seems, and time disappears in a forest of make believe. An extraordinary cast will play every role in this ode to young love, old age, and theatre itself.
Macbeth
Saturday 19 August – Saturday 14 October
Press night: Wednesday 30 August at 7pm
By William Shakespeare
Director Wils Wilson
Designer Georgia McGuinness
Lighting Kai Fischer
Sound Claire Windsor
Movement and Choreography Julia Cheng
Fights Kaitlin Howard
Casting Director Simone Pereira Hind CDG and Anna Dawson
Brutal actions have brutal consequences. The political and natural world is broken and the Macbeths seize this opportunity to rise through the ranks and control their destiny. But their ambitions unravel into a living nightmare in a world where boundaries are paper thin - between the natural and supernatural, love and hate, joy and despair.
This is a gripping, terrifying tale of our times.
In her RSC debut, award-winning director Wils Wilson (Associate Director at the Lyceum Theatre, Edinburgh) directs Macbeth, one of Shakespeare’s most enduringly popular plays.
Wils directed and co-created The Strange Undoing of Prudencia Hart which has been touring non-theatre spaces internationally since 2010, winning numerous awards including a Drama Desk Award for its New York run. She has also directed Life is A Dream, recently winning multiple awards at the Critics Awards for Theatre in Scotland, including Best Director
Prices from £16 to £62.50
A limited number of Premium Seats are available at a supplement of £12.50 on A price tickets.
SWAN THEATRE
The Empress
Stratford-upon-Avon
Friday 7 July – Saturday 18 November
Press night: Tuesday 18 July at 7pm
Lyric Hammersmith Theatre
Wednesday 4 – Saturday 28 October
Press night: Tuesday 10 October
By Tanika Gupta
Director Pooja Ghai
Designer Rosa Maggiora
Lighting Matt Haskins
Music and Sound Ben and Max Ringham
Movement Wayne Parsons
Fights and Intimacy Rachel Bown-Williams and Ruth Cooper-Brown
It is 1887, the year Queen Victoria celebrates her Golden Jubilee.
Sixteen year old Rani Das, ayah (nursemaid) to an English family arrives at Tilbury docks after a long voyage from India, to start a new life in Britain.
On the boat, Rani befriends a lascar (sailor), an Indian politician and a royal servant destined to serve the Queen. Full of hopes and dreams of what lies ahead, they each embark on an extraordinary journey.
Will their expectations come true or will they have to forge a different path in their new county?
The play spans 13 years over the ‘Golden Era’ of Empire, blending the experiences of Indian ayahs and lascars who worked on the ships carrying trade goods, alongside the first Indian politician to be elected as a Member of Parliament. This epic story reveals how socially diverse the Asian presence was in nineteenth century Britain.
Directed by Pooja Ghai, Artistic Director of Tamasha, Tanika Gupta’s The Empress will take you from the rugged gangways of Tilbury docks to the grandeur of Queen Victoria’s Palace, whilst unveiling the long and embedded culture of British Asian history.
Falkland Sound
Saturday 5 August – Saturday 16 September
Press night: Tuesday 15 August at 7pm
By Brad Birch
Director and Movement Aaron Parsons
Designer Aldo Vázquez
April 1982. The Falkland Islands are invaded by Argentine forces. The shockwaves reverberate around the world. For some, it’s overdue: seen in the gradual sweep to decolonise the world it is thought of as an inevitable next step. For others, the act strikes at the very heart of British identity.
Falkland Sound tells the incredible story of a small community plunged into the middle of an international crisis. About half the size of Wales, populated by fewer than two thousand people, with conditions so hostile that trees struggle to grow, everyday life on these strange and beguiling islands is changed forever as two powerful nations fight for the right to claim sovereignty.
Brad Birch’s lyrical new play turns modern history into a theatrical epic, depicting a community and way of life turned upside down. Falkland Sound is a play about empire, community, and what it means to live in someone else’s metaphor.
The Merchant of Venice 1936
Thursday 21 September – Saturday 7 October
Local press night: Tuesday 26 September at 7pm
By William Shakespeare
Director Brigid Larmour
Costume and Set Designer Liz Cooke
Lighting Designer Rory Beaton
Sound Designer Sarah Weltman
Composer Erran Baron Cohen
UK Tour dates:
Wycombe Swan – Tuesday 10 – Saturday 14 October
Malvern Theatres – Tuesday 17 – Saturday 21 October
Bromley Churchill Theatre – Tuesday 24 – Saturday 28 October
Cardiff New Theatre – Tuesday 31 October – Saturday 4 November
York Theatre Royal – Tuesday 14 – Saturday 18 November
Trafalgar Theatre Productions and Eilene Davidson Productions in association with the Royal Shakespeare Company presents The Watford Palace Theatre & HOME Manchester production of The Merchant of Venice.
London, 1936 the threat of fascism grows day by day.
Shylock (Tracy-Ann Oberman - Eastenders, Doctor Who, Friday Night Dinner) a widow, single mother and survivor of attacks on Jewish people in Russia, runs a small business from her home in Cable Street.
Oswald Mosley and the British Union of Fascists march through the Jewish East End and a fragile peace is shattered.
Into Shylock’s world enters antisemitic Antonio in need of a loan, a dangerous deal is made. Will Shylock take her revenge?
A powerful reminder of a key moment in British history.
‘If you prick us do we not bleed? If you poison us do we not die? And if you wrong us shall we not revenge?’
Cowbois
Saturday 14 October – Saturday 18 November
Press Night Tuesday 24 October at 7pm
By Charlie Josephine
Co-Directors Charlie Josephine and Sean Holmes
Designer Grace Smart
No more petticoats! No more men!
In a sleepy town in the Wild West, the women drift through their days like tumbleweed. Their husbands, swept up in the goldrush, have been missing for almost a year and show no sign of returning. In fact, the town is almost cut off from outsiders entirely, with only one drunken sheriff for protection.
That is until handsome bandit Jack Cannon swaggers up to the town’s saloon, looking for a place to hide from the bounty hunters on his tail.
Armed with whiskey and a wink, and a gun by their side for good measure, Jack’s explosive arrival inspires a gender revolution, and starts a fire under the petticoat of every one of the town’s repressed inhabitants.
Written by Charlie Josephine, and co-directed by Charlie Josephine and Sean Holmes, this rollicking queer cowboy show is like nothing you’ve ever seen before.
Prices from £10 to £55
A limited number of Premium Seats are available at a supplement of £10.00 on A price tickets
THE OTHER PLACE
Hamlet
By William Shakespeare
Friday 28 – Saturday 29 July 2023.
Director Paul Ainsworth
Designer Georgie White
Music Ben McQuigg
ALL PERFORMANCES
£15.00
Following the success of ‘All Mirth and No Matter’ in 2021 and their involvement in ‘Henry VI: Rebellion’, our Next Generation Company of 13-18 year olds will present their take on of Shakespeare’s Hamlet in The Other Place from 28 to 29 July 2023.
In this abridged version of the original text, they will explore the unstable state of Denmark through the eyes of the younger generation in the play and how the actions of those in power effect the inheritors of the nation.
Our Next Generation Company represent young people from across our Associate Schools Programme, led in partnership with schools and theatres. The production will be made with and by young people including an Trainee Assistant Director and behind the scenes creatives drawn from Next Generation Backstage and Direct talent development programmes.
NOTES TO EDITORS
The RSC is supported using public funding by Arts Council England
The work of the RSC is supported by the Culture Recovery Fund
The RSC is generously supported by RSC America
As You Like It is sponsored by Darwin Escapes
As You Like It is supported by Season Supporter Charles Holloway
Hamnet is supported by RSC Production Circle members Peggy Czyzak-Dannenbaum, Susan Tomasky and Ronald J Ungvarsky and Marcia Whitaker
Hamnet is a recipient of the Edgerton Foundation New Play Award
Miranda Curtis CMG – Lead Production Supporter of Cowbois
The RSC Acting Companies are generously supported by The Gatsby Charitable Foundation
New Work at the RSC is generously supported by The Drue and H.J. Heinz II Charitable Trust
TikTok £10 Tickets sponsored by TikTok
RSC Next Generation is generously supported by the Allan and Nesta Ferguson Charitable Trust, Andrew Lloyd Webber Foundation, John S Cohen Foundation and Noël Coward Foundation
Royal Shakespeare Company (RSC)
The Royal Shakespeare Company is a theatre and learning charity that creates world class theatre, made in Stratford-upon-Avon and shared around the world, performing plays by Shakespeare and his contemporaries, as well as commissioning an exceptionally wide range of original work from contemporary writers. Our purpose is to ensure that Shakespeare is for everyone, and we do that by unlocking the power of his plays and of live performance and our learning and education work throughout the UK and across the world.
We believe everybody’s life is enriched by culture and creativity. We have trained generations of the very best theatre makers and we continue to nurture the talent of the future. Our transformative Learning programmes reach over half a million young people and adults each year, and through our Creative Placemaking and Public Programme we create projects with and for communities who have not historically engaged with our work. We are a leader in creative immersive technologies and digital development.
We have a proud record of innovation, diversity and excellence on stage and are determined to grasp the opportunity to become an even more inclusive, progressive, relevant and ambitious organisation.
We have one of the UK’s largest arts learning programmes, working with over 1,000 schools each year to broaden access to high quality arts learning and transform experiences of Shakespeare in schools. Through our national partnership programme with schools and regional theatres we target areas of structural disadvantage, including 26 areas of multiple deprivation across the country, from Cornwall to Middlesbrough. Research shows that our approaches to teaching Shakespeare support the development of reading and writing skills, accelerate language acquisition and development, raise aspirations and improve student attitudes to school and learning in general. They also foster well-being, self-esteem, empathy, resilience and tolerance and promote critical-thinking, creative, analytical, communication and problem-solving skills.
We are committed to being a teaching and learning theatre and we are the only arts organisation to have been awarded Independent Research Organisation status. We create world class theatre for, with and by audiences and theatre makers of all ages. We provide training for emerging and established theatre makers and arts professionals, for teachers and for young people. We share learning formally and informally. We embed training and research across our company, work and processes.
We recognise the climate emergency and work hard to embed environmental sustainability into our operations, creative work and business practice, making a commitment to continually reduce our carbon footprint.
Keep Your RSC supports our mission to create theatre at its best, unlocking Shakespeare and transforming lives. Thousands of generous audience members, trusts and foundations and partners supported Keep Your RSC since 2020, alongside a £19.4 million loan from the Culture Recovery Fund, we are thrilled to be welcoming audiences back. It will take time to recover, to reopen all our theatres, and many years to repay the loan and the support and generosity of our audiences is more important than ever. Please donate at rsc.org.uk/donate
Arts Council England is the national development body for arts and culture across England, working to enrich people’s lives. We support a range of activities across the arts, museums and libraries – from theatre to visual art, reading to dance, music to literature, and crafts to collections. Great art and culture inspires us, brings us together and teaches us about ourselves and the world around us. In short, it makes life better. Between 2018 and 2022, we will invest £1.45 billion of public money from government and an estimated £860 million from the National Lottery to help create these experiences for as many people as possible across the country.www.artscouncil.org.uk
Darwin Escapes
Darwin Escapes currently operates 26-holiday resorts and three golf courses across the UK offering holiday breaks, holiday home ownership and golf breaks. One of the newest retreats, Stratford-upon-Avon Lodge Retreat, is located only two-miles away from the centre of the city and is perfect for theatre trips, along with exploring the local area. You'll enjoy a peaceful countryside location, with luxurious self-catering accommodation, while still being able to enjoy both the theatre and city.
Darwin Escapes offers a wide range of holiday accommodation at its holiday resorts, ranging from romantic boutique escapes to luxury lodge retreats and traditional family-focused holiday parks. All locations boast state-of-the-art and diverse accommodation with some offering on-site facilities including spas, gyms, restaurants and activities.
The company strives to raise the standards of the UK holiday park industry and to ultimately provide the best possible holiday experience for holidaymakers and holiday homeowners by creating brand new resorts in stunning UK locations with accommodation and facilities that rival those of 5-star hotels.
New location coming soon, Blenheim Palace Lodge Retreat. The unique project, will be the first venue of its kind and will see a collection of one, two and three-bedroom lodges built on the grounds of the historic Blenheim Palace Estate, as well as being a gateway to the Oxfordshire countryside.
For further information about Darwin Escapes and its numerous golf and holiday destinations and facilities visit www.darwinescapes.co.uk or follow them on Instagram, Twitter or Facebook: @DarwinEscapes
TikTok
TikTok is the leading destination for short-form mobile video. Our mission is to inspire creativity and bring joy. TikTok has global offices including Los Angeles, New York, London, Paris, Berlin, Dubai, Singapore, Jakarta, Seoul, and Tokyo.
The Lyric Hammersmith Theatre
The Lyric Hammersmith Theatre produces bold and relevant world-class theatre from the heart of Hammersmith, the theatre’s home for more than 125 years. Under the leadership of Artistic Director and CEO Rachel O’Riordan, it is committed to being vital to, and representative of, the local community. A major force in London and UK theatre, the Lyric produces adventurous and acclaimed theatrical work that tells the stories that matter. The Lyric Hammersmith Theatre has a national reputation for ground-breaking work to develop and nurture the next generation of talent, providing opportunities for young people to discover the power of creativity and to experience the life changing impact of theatre. We are the creative heart of Hammersmith, proud of our history and ambitious for our future.
Watford Palace Theatre
Watford Palace Theatre is a regional cultural powerhouse that entertains and brings joy, empowerment, and inspiration to all. From its roots as a Music Hall, built in 1908, and an early pioneer of Theatre in Education, Watford Palace Theatre is an arts charity that celebrates its rich heritage, and boldly steps towards the future embracing a new vision of theatre – indoors, outdoors, and online. Recent WPT productions include a new adaptation of Little Women by Anne-Marie Casey; in association with Rifco, a world premiere of Glitterball, and Mike Leigh’s Abigail’s Party; Recent commissions at Imagine Watford, a free annual festival celebrating a range of outdoor performance art include Remembering Eden by Victoria Culf, and The Happy Prince by Pack Pack Theatre. Co-commissions include TIMELESS by Jolie Vyann and Da Native by Far From the Norm. Watford Palace Theatre is proud to celebrate inventive and inclusive creativity for all generations, exhibited with Buffering, the first onstage performance by the Palace Young Company at Stage in the Park, the Enrich Festival in association with Herts Inclusive Theatre which gives visibility to artists with learning disabilities, and a sharing from the Moving Museum of Motherhood, which came to be staged via a freelance callout supported by the Cultural Recovery Fund. Watford Palace Theatre partners with Warner Bros, Studios Leavesden, the University of Hertfordshire, and CathARTic Art, to produce the Hertfordshire Film Festival, showcasing the best filmmaking talent across the region. Central to Watford Palace Theatre’s vision is Resident Partner Rifco Theatre Company.
Trafalgar Theatre Productions
Trafalgar Theatre Productions, produces new shows and classic musicals in London and internationally including the Tony and Olivier award-winning smash hit musical, Jersey Boys, which opened London’s new Trafalgar Theatre in 2021 and is currently touring the UK & Ireland, Broadway’s favourite multi award-winning musical, Alanis Morrisette’s Jagged Little Pill which launched the Theatre Royal Sydney in September 2021, a major revival of the classic musical, Anything Goes, starring Sutton Foster and Robert Lindsay at the Barbican Theatre in the summer of 2021, the hilarious new comedy, Death Drop, at the Garrick Theatre and Criterion Theatre, the current World Tour of The Rocky Horror Show, the Lincoln Center’s award-winning production of The King and I at the London Palladium and worldwide, and a co-production of War Horse with The National Theatre in Australia and Asia-Pacific.
www.trafalgarentertainment.com
