A New Season of Shakespeare is Coming to the RSC In 2023

Erica Whyman, Acting Artistic Director, has announced details of the Royal Shakespeare Company's artistic programme for 2023.

In the year which marks the 400th anniversary of the publication of Shakespeare's First Folio, the RSC will present a series of new artistic commissions which address the question of power, who holds it, who should, how does it change human beings, how might power shift and what could be transformed in our world as a result.

The season will feature ambitious re-imaginings of six Shakespeare titles led by a fresh slate of directors, four of whom will present work in the Royal Shakespeare Theatre for the first time.

The season includes five titles that would have been lost forever if the First Folio had not been published in 1623 and a new production of Hamlet, chosen by Next Generation Act, the RSC's young company for talented young people from backgrounds under-represented in the arts.

The Tempest, Julius Caesar, Cymbeline, As You Like It and Macbeth will run consecutively from January to October 2023 in a break from the Company's usual repertory model.

Public booking for The Tempest, Julius Caesar and Cymbeline opens on Monday 17 October. Tickets for As You Like It and Macbeth will be available from early 2023.

The RSC will also mark the official opening of submissions for its nationwide playwriting project; 37 Plays which will create a living folio of bold new work which captures the stories of our nation now.

Erica Whyman, Acting Artistic Director, said:

'As the RSC embarks on a new chapter, with a fresh and fearless determination to look at ourselves and our world through the lens of Shakespeare's plays, all of our creative activity in 2023 will address questions of power. Who has it, who doesn't, how does it change a human being, when does it corrupt, and how might it disrupt and liberate?

'I have chosen five plays that would have been lost forever if we didn't have the First Folio, published in an act of remarkable conviction in 1623, seven years after Shakespeare's death. The Folio invested enormous lasting power in one playwright, who was himself fascinated by how power is apportioned according to race, gender, class and birth right and how rarely the smartest and the bravest people are afforded power.

Our young company have chosen to explore Hamlet, as it speaks so vividly of the fragility of the world we live in.

'These six fascinating and wonderfully different plays explore political power, the crumbling of imperial power, the power of young people, especially young women, to free themselves from expectation and find new ways of living, and the terrible psychological destruction of the murderous desire for power.

'In the Royal Shakespeare Theatre, we won't be in repertory this year but have chosen to present these six plays as standalone events. We love the benefits of playing in rep and will be returning to it, but we are experimenting with new models. This pattern allows each play a very distinct identity, and a unique company of actors, allowing us to be more surprising as we reveal the intentions behind each production. The five directors offer different approaches, influences and instincts and share a commitment to release courageous new meaning in the plays.

'We are making our work in new ways, collaborating with local and national communities to inform our thinking and creative impulses, and opening doors to new collaborators and new talent. In the diverse expression of inventive theatre artists across our platforms - from the activism of our young ambassadors, to the ambitious quest to find 37 plays to stand proudly next to Shakespeare as a folio of our own time - we will set out to put power in new hands and ask how can theatre encourage curiosity and debate about power in a shifting world.'

ROYAL SHAKESPEARE THEATRE

Running in the Royal Shakespeare Theatre from Thursday 26 January to Saturday 4 March, the season opens with Elizabeth Freestone's The Tempest; an elemental tale of resource wars, revenge and renewal. Alex Kingston will return to the Company to play Prospero alongside Offie award-winning actress Jessica Rhodes, who makes her debut with the Royal Shakespeare Company playing Miranda.

Alex first joined the Royal Shakespeare Company in the early 1990s, during which time she played the roles of Cordelia in King Lear, Hero in Much Ado About Nothing and Jaquenetta in Love's Labour's Lost.

As a stage actor, Alex Kingston has enjoyed major roles in the West End and on Broadway. These include Lady Millford in Luise Miller for The Donmar Warehouse and Nurse Ratched in One Flew Over The Cuckoo's Nest at The Garrick Theatre. In July 2013, Alex won critical acclaim playing Lady Macbeth, a role she later reprised for her New York stage debut at the Park Avenue Armory in June 2014.

Alex is best known to television viewers for her roles as Moll in The Fortunes and Misfortunes of Moll Flanders (1996), British surgeon Dr. Elizabeth Corday in the long-running NBC medical drama ER, and for her role as Dr River Song in the BBC science-fiction series Doctor Who. More recently, Alex has appeared as Mrs. Bennet in Lost in Austen (2008), Dinah Lance in Arrow (2013-2016), and Sarah Bishop in A Discovery of Witches (2018-present).

As a Director, Elizabeth Freestone has staged work for the Royal Shakespeare Company, Manchester Royal Exchange, the Citizens Theatre Glasgow, the Young Vic and Shakespeare at the Tobacco Factory, amongst others.

Her previous work for the RSC includes The Rape of Lucrece, which premiered at the Swan Theatre in 2011 before playing at the Edinburgh International Festival in August 2012 and going on to tour internationally, Crooked Dances (2019), The Comedy of Errors and The Tragedy of Thomas Hobbes.

She is the former Artistic Director of Pentabus, a new work touring company bringing the contemporary rural world to new audiences in village halls, fields, festivals and theatres, described by The Telegraph as 'one of the most important theatre companies in the country'.

In 2021, Elizabeth co-wrote 100 Plays To Save The World, a guide to one hundred brilliant plays addressing the climate crisis, with Jeanie O'Hare.

Making his RSC debut is The Stage Debut award-winner (2019) and UK Theatre award-nominated Director Atri Banerjee with a visceral new production of Julius Caesar. The production premieres in the Royal Shakespeare Theatre from Saturday 18 March to Saturday 8 April.

From there, the production will visit nine venues across the country including RSC Partner Theatres, marking the beginning of an ambitious three-year programme to expand the reach of our national touring footprint and place co-creation with the communities we serve at the heart of our theatre-making, supported using public funding by the National Lottery through Arts Council England.

Venues include The Marlowe Theatre Canterbury, Hall for Cornwall, Truro, The Alhambra, Bradford, Theatre Royal, Newcastle, The Grand Theatre, Blackpool, Theatre Royal, Nottingham, Theatre Royal, Norwich, Theatre Royal in York and The Lowry, Salford.

The production will also feature a Community Leaders Chorus made up of six women from each location on the UK tour. The chorus will be recruited from their local communities, with a particular focus on female 'Community Leaders' such as teachers, support workers, campaigners, church leaders, volunteers and other women of influence. A local Musical Director will also be recruited at each venue to work with their group. The participants will work closely with professional RSC practitioners to develop their own leadership and other transferable skills and to explore in greater depth the nature of what makes a good leader today.

Atri Banerjee was recently named in The Stage 25 list of theatre-makers to look out for in 2022 and beyond. His 2019 production of Hobson's Choice at the Royal Exchange Theatre, Manchester, won him The Stage Debut Award for Best Director and earned him a nomination for the UK Theatre Award for Best Director.

His current production of Tennessee Williams' The Glass Menagerie for the Royal Exchange opened to critical acclaim earlier this month and was described as 'a crackling production...casting a new neon light on Williams' play' (The Independent), 'as intelligent as it is adventurous' (The Guardian) and 'powerfully heart-wrenching' (The Telegraph).

Other recent directing credits include Britannicus (Lyric Hammersmith), Kes (Octagon Theatre, Bolton/Theatre By The Lake, Keswick), Harm (Bush Theatre), Utopia (Royal Exchange Theatre), ERROR ERROR ERROR (Marlowe Theatre/RSC) and Europe (LAMDA).

Film directing credits include Harm for the BBC Lights Up season on BBC Four.

Atri was previously Trainee Director at the Royal Exchange and a Resident Director at the Almeida Theatre and is currently a Trustee of the Regional Theatre Young Directors' Scheme (RTYDS) and a mentor for the JMK Trust.

Atri's role was recruited through OpenHire; a new initiative by Derek Bond and Josh Roche which aims to improve transparency and access to freelance creative jobs in theatre.

Gregory Doran (RSC Artistic Director Emeritus) will direct his 50th production for the Royal Shakespeare Company with a new staging of William Shakespeare's dark fairytale Cymbeline.

Described as "one of the great Shakespearians of his generation" [Sunday Times], the production will mark a personal milestone for Gregory, who, in 2023, will complete his journey to direct every Shakespeare play featured in the first folio . The production will open on Saturday 22 April, ahead of the weekend of Shakespeare's Birthday and runs until Saturday 27 May in the RST. Cymbeline is supported by ICBC (London).

This will be followed by Olivier award-nominated director, writer and dramaturg Omar Elerian's playful and provocative take on Shakespeare's joyous summertime comedy; As You Like It, which runs in Summer 2023. Dates to be announced in, and on sale from, February 2023.

A graduate of the Lecoq International Theatre School, Paris, Omar was the resident Associate Director at the Bush Theatre from 2012-2019, where he commissioned and directed some of the theatre's most successful shows. As a sole director for the Bush Theatre, his credits include smash-hit Misty by Arinzé Kene (Bush, West End), NASSIM by Nassim Soleimanpour (Bush Theatre, Traverse Theatre and a world tour), Going Through by Estelle Savasta and Islands by Caroline Horton.

In 2022, Omar translated and directed the Olivier Award-winning Kathryn Hunter and Marcello Magni, co-founders of pioneering theatre company Complicité, in a new revival of Eugène Ionesco's tragic farce; The Chairs (Almeida), a show described by The Guardian as "a gloriously fizzy cocktail of slapstick, physical theatre and silliness".

The production is supported by Darwin Escapes, the Headline Sponsor of As You Like It. Darwin Escapes is a long-standing partner of the RSC and recently renewed their support for the next three years. Darwin Escapes operate holiday resorts in the UK, including a self-catering lodge retreat on the outskirts of Stratford-upon-Avon.

In July 2023, Paul Ainsworth will direct the RSCs young company of 13-18 year olds recruited from across the country, to present their interpretation of Shakespeare's Hamlet.

In this abridged version, 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.

Performed in The Other Place, the company of twenty-five 13-18 year olds represent young people from across our Associate Schools Programme, led in partnership with Lead Associate Schools and Associate Regional Theatres. The production will be made with and by young people including a young Associate Director and behind the scenes creatives drawn from the RSCs Next Generation Backstage and Direct talent development programmes.

Award-winning director and site-specific theatre-maker Wils Wilson completes the line-up with a thrilling new interpretation of Shakespeare's Macbeth. The production will open in the Royal Shakespeare Theatre in Autumn 2023. Dates to be announced in, and on sale from, February 2023.

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 is Associate Director at the Lyceum Theatre, Edinburgh, where she directed Life is A Dream whose 'wild, slightly punk-inflected brilliance' (The Scotsman) recently won multiple awards at the Critics Awards for Theatre in Scotland, including Best Director, and for which Lorn MacDonald and Anna Russell Martin also won Ian Charleston Awards.

Her work at the Lyceum also includes Wind Resistance, created with singer-songwriter Karine Polwart and described as "a poignant, unflinching and beautiful show about healing, protection, the fragility of human life and the world around it." (The Telegraph) for Edinburgh International Festival, Red Ellen (Edinburgh Lyceum/Northern Stage/Nottingham Playhouse), Twelfth Night (Bristol Old Vic/Lyceum), Cockpit and The Hour We Knew Nothing of Each Other.

Her other work includes the Olivier-nominated I Want My Hat Back for The National Theatre and shows for the Royal Court, Manchester Royal Exchange and Welsh National Opera. She has worked extensively for National Theatre of Scotland, including The 306 Dusk, the final part of the trilogy remembering the 306 soldiers shot for desertion in WWI. She created two genre-defying shows with musician Gruff Rhys for National Theatre Wales - Praxis Makes Perfect (Best Director, Welsh Theatre Awards) described as "some sort of god-damn creative masterclass" by Artrocker magazine and Candylion.

Until 2007 Wils was co-Artistic Director of wilson+wilson, making site-specific work across the UK, where her work included HOUSE, Mapping the Edge, News from the Seventh Floor and Mulgrave.

TIME TO ACT

The RSC has one of the UK's largest arts learning programmes and believes that all young people should have access to an arts-rich education. Data tells us that the take up of arts and creative subjects in schools continues to decline and that the gap is widening between those young people who have access to the arts and those that don't. The RSC has today announced a new research project to measure the impact of the company's work on children's language development and literacy skills.

Jacqui O'Hanlon, Director of Learning and National Partnerships for the RSC, said:

'Research tells us that an arts-rich education enhances the life chances of children and that those who experience an arts rich education tend to do better at school, are more likely to go to University and land better jobs. And yet the playing field isn't level; currently, every child does not have equitable access to the benefits of a rounded, arts-rich education.

The initiatives we're championing are about opening up access to opportunities and benefits for all young people. Ask the young people that we work with, or who work with theatres and arts organisation across the UK, and they will tell you about the enormous value of arts subjects and experiences to their lives and development. But they will also tell you that society at large doesn't seem to value them in the same way. Our Youth Advisory Board want to join the debate and champion their rights, their education and their futures.'

Time to Act is the first major RSC research project of its kind since the RSC was awarded Independent Research Organisation (IRO) status last year. It builds on the three-year Time To Listen study which demonstrated the value young people place on arts and culture in their daily school life.

A two-year research programme funded by the Paul Hamlyn Foundation, Time to Act will examine the impact of the RSC's rehearsal-based approaches to learning Shakespeare on young people's learning outcomes. Research activity will include a randomised control trial that will take place in 70 classrooms across the country. It will also see the creation of a Teacher Researcher Network, through which we will co-develop research questions in close consultation with teachers, students and arts learning practitioners to explore how RSC approaches work, why they work and for whom.

At the end of the two years, the study will provide empirical data alongside qualitative and quantitative measurement tools that can be used by arts organisations to demonstrate the value of their work on the learning outcomes of children and young people.

The tools will be fully and freely available for use across the arts sector and help strengthen the case around the importance of arts learning interventions on children's social, emotional, intellectual and skills development.

Youth Voice

The RSCs Youth Advisory Board will host the very first national Young Creatives Convention, on Monday 18 July, 2023.

Developed and curated by the RSC's Youth Advisory Board, this youth-led event is the first of its kind to be held in the Royal Shakespeare Theatre and will bring together like minded, creative young people from across the country to explore the issues that matter most to them. As well as the importance of the arts in education they will explore key issues affecting young people today, how they can collectively drive change and the role that arts organisations and schools can play. Further details will be announced in January 2023.

Members of the RSC's Youth Advisory Board, said; "Our experience of being part of the RSC's Youth Advisory Board has shown us that young people can have agency and a voice. And yet, young people's voices are nowhere to be seen in the issues that matter most to us. We care about active anti-racism in schools, in arts organisation and in society; we care about mental health and wellbeing for young people; we care about the arts and culture in education and about access and inclusion in the arts. We want to take action about these issues and we want to bring together young people from across the country who also want to create positive change in their schools and communities. Together we can create a movement for change."

WHO TELLS OUR STORIES?

37 Plays - A new folio of plays for the 21st Century

The submissions window for the Royal Shakespeare Company's nationwide playwriting project; 37 Plays opens on 1 January 2023 and closes on 31 January 2023.

From five-act plays to short-form monologues, plays performed on stage, in classrooms or on the streets, to untried and emerging formats, 37 Plays invites children, young people, and adults, including established and first-time writers to write the comedies, tragedies and untold histories of our time.

37 Plays is open to anyone in the UK who wants to submit a play with the simple brief of creating a piece of drama that can make people laugh, smile, cry or think. The project will explore who we are as a society and inspire conversation about what the future of dramatic writing might look and feel like, on and off our stages.

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

Play submissions divide into three age categories of up to 11 years old, 12 to 17 years old and 18 years old and above. Multi-authored plays may nominate a lead writer or average age of writers.

Submitted plays will be read by a national panel selected by the RSC's network of Associate Regional Theatres: The Alhambra Theatre, Bradford; The Grand Theatre Blackpool; Hull Truck Theatre; Hall for Cornwall; Intermission Youth Theatre; The Marlowe Theatre, Canterbury; Northern Stage; Norwich Theatre; Nottingham Theatre Royal & Royal Concert Hall; The New Vic Theatre, Stoke; Silhouette Youth Theatre and York Theatre Royal.

Full details of Terms and Conditions of entry and associated FAQs can be accessed via www.37plays.co.uk

Contested Histories; Meeting Point

Also launching in Spring 2023, the RSC with leading contemporary arts agency, Arts&Heritage will explore the often overlooked and untold stories that surround Shakespeare's First Folio.

The RSC is the permanent home to one of the most significant Shakespeare and theatre collections in the world, with materials spanning from the 1600s to the present day. Among the highlights of the collection is a copy of the First Folio, one of only 234 surviving copies of the collection of Shakespeare's plays published in 1623 that exist today.

Meeting Point is a collaboration between the Royal Shakespeare Company's Creative Placemaking and Public Programmes Team, National Trust and Youth Hostels Association (YHA) and Museum X. The Contested Histories project will work with composer, vocalist, and performance artist, Liz Gre, to elevate stories by black people, indigenous people, and people from the global majority who have interacted with the first folio throughout history. The project aims to redress the balance of who engages with Shakespeare's stories, challenging public perceptions of cultural heritage and exploring how underrepresented communities have shaped British history.

The Play's The Thing - Co-curating Collections

Spring 2023 also marks the launch of a new project co-curated with three Stratford-based community organisations, each of which have had little to no previous engagement with the RSC.

The focus will be The Play's The Thing, the RSC's permanent exhibition which offers unique insight into the history of theatre-making in Stratford-upon-Avon since 1879.

Through a series of workshops, the groups will select items from the RSC Collection which will combine to tell the story of performance in Stratford-upon-Avon through the eyes of its residents.

The chosen items will form part of the newly re-launched The Play's The Thing exhibition, which will re-open to the public in April 2023 following a three-year period of closure due to the pandemic.

The three community groups taking part in the project include GAGA Yarn Bombers: a network of local knitters and crocheters who collaborate on yarn bombing (yarn-based graffiti) projects in the local area, Welcome Here: a support group for refugees new to the UK and second-year fashion students at Stratford-upon-Avon College.

The Co-curating Collections project has been made possible by ArtFund support; the national fundraising charity for art. ArtFund provide millions of pounds every year to help museums to acquire and share works of art across the UK, further the professional development of their curators, and inspire more people to visit and enjoy their public programmes.

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