Repetoire Change Announced for Lincoln Center Festival

The Royal Shakespeare Company's (RSC) acclaimed production of Julius Caesar directed by Lucy Bailey will join the schedule for the Company's Lincoln Center Festival residency this summer at Park Avenue Armory replacing Antony and Cleopatra, it was announced today by Nigel Redden, Director, Lincoln Center Festival, Michael Boyd, RSC Artistic Director, and Rebecca Robertson, President and CEO, Park Avenue Armory. The RSC will be presented by Lincoln Center Festival and Park Avenue Armory, in association with The Ohio State University.

RSC Artistic Director Michael Boyd said: "Lucy Bailey's production of Julius Caesar in our London season at the Roundhouse has proved itself a great success and a landmark production of this play. I have taken the decision that this production should join the repertoire for the RSC's season at the Lincoln Center Festival this summer, replacing my own production of Antony and Cleopatra. We are looking forward to bringing to New York work developed over two and a half years with a single company of actors on a specially built thrust stage which can only be realized in Park Avenue Armory's soaring space. I want American audiences to have the opportunity of seeing the very best of our work and we only have room for five Shakespeare productions in the season.

Said Mr. Redden, "These performances will be the culmination of a two and a half year period during which the ensemble has been rehearsing and performing the works of Shakespeare. Early on, we agreed that the performances in New York would be those that had benefited from the three-year period of maturation. We applaud Michael's decision to bring this monumental production of Julius Caesar to the Lincoln Center Festival."

Ms. Robertson said: "The Armory looks forward to the performances of the RSC, selected from among so many fine works in their repertoire. We are very excited about Julius Caesar at the Armory in the Drill Hall."

Bailey's production was a resounding winner with the London critics when it opened at the RSC's Roundhouse Theatre in London this week. Described as "...a thrilling production of Shakespeare's most macho play" by The Times, London, the cast includes Greg Hicks as Caesar, Sam Troughton as Brutus, and Darrell D'Silva as Mark Antony. The Daily Telegraph said, "David Cameron and Nick Clegg should make time to catch this thrilling staging of Julius Caesar...it once again proves the truth that Shakespeare is our contemporary." The Guardian added, "Bailey's production now makes a good case for the play and strikes the right balance between the visceral and intellectual."

Shakespeare's Julius Caesar is both a political thriller and a character study about the treacherous assassination of the Roman emperor Julius Caesar led by co-conspirators Brutus and Cassius, who fear the leader has become too powerful.

The Royal Shakespeare Company's unprecedented six-week engagement at Lincoln Center Festival (July 6 - August 14) will offer five different plays in repertory performed by the same ensemble. The other four are As You Like It, directed by Michael Boyd, Romeo and Juliet, directed by RSC Associate Director, Rupert Goold, King Lear and The Winter's Tale, both directed by RSC Associate Director, David Farr. All will be performed at Park Avenue Armory on a specially-built thrust stage based on the newly transformed Royal Shakespeare Theater, where the audience is seated around three sides of the action.

Tickets:
Those who purchased tickets for Antony and Cleopatra may use their tickets to attend the corresponding Julius Caesar performance. Alternatively, they may exchange their tickets for another performance in the RSC residency, or may request a refund of their purchase price. Ticketholders are being contacted by Lincoln Center's Customer Service department. Lincoln Center Festival's RSC website is LincolnCenter.org/RSC.

Photo Credit: Nigel Redden by Genevieve Rafter-Keddy

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