The Royal Shakespeare Company returns to its home base for the 2011/2012 season following a three year closure for a £112.8 million redevelopment of two of its Stratford-upon-Avon theatres. The Royal Shakespeare Theatre and Swan Theatre opened to the public on November 24, 2010. Until February, when plays already in repertoire will be the first to try out the new stage, special events, previews and and public tours will fill the new theater. From November, a brand new musical production of Roald Dahl's Matilda, with music by Tim Minchin, plays at The Courtyard, the RSC's temporary theatre space.
50th Anniversary Season
The new Royal Shakespeare Theatre will have its formal opening in April 2011. The Royal Shakespeare Company will celebrate its 50th year between April 14 and November 5 2011 with to companies of actors playing across two theaters. Here's what to expect:
At the Royal Shakespeare Theatre
- Macbeth, directed by RSC Artistic Director Michael Boyd
- The Merchant of Venice, directed by RSC Associate Director Rupert Goold
- A Midsummer Night's Dream, directed by Nancy Meckler
- Marat/Sade: The Persecution and Assassination of Marat as Performed by the Inmates of the Asylum of Charenton under the Direction of the Marquis de Sade a mew verse adaptation by Adrian Mitchell.
At the Swan
- Cardenio, Shakespeare's "lost play", reimagined and directed by Gregory Doran
- The City Madam, by Philip Massinger, directed by Dominic Hill
- Dunsinane by David Grieg, back by popular demand and precented by the National Theatre of Scotland and the Royal Lyceum Theatre, Edinburgh.
- The Homecoming, Harold Pinter's favorite play, first performed at the RST in 1965, directed by David Farr
- The Taming of the Shrew, a Young People's Shakespeare Production directed by Tim Crouch.
Celebration Events
- 1961-2011: Fifty years of great play-making - Script-in-hand performances of key plays commissioned by the RSC over the past 50 years, plus discussions and open rehearsals of landmark productions of the past.
- History of the RSC in 50 Objects - Online and in the theaters, objects that tell a piece of the company's history.
- Sweet Celebrations - A sugary extravaganza as Shane Waltener and friends turn the Swan Room into a giant birthday cake, covering the walls with handmade and decorated sugar tiles.
And there's loads more
The company is celebrating is birthday and its new theatre with a spectacular season of plays and events. but if you can't wait for the new season to see the new stage and the Swan in action, here's what's happening from February 2011:- "King Lear" and "Romeo and Juliet", produced during the RSC's first "long ensemble", return from London's Roundhouse for revivals as the first productions on the new stage. The long ensemble is a group of actors under the leadership of Artistic Director Michael Boyd, who worked together for nearly three years, preparing a rich repetoire of works for touring productions, the opening of the new theatre and the RSC's 50th anniversary in 2011.
- The Young People's Shakespeare production of The Comedy of Errors, in association with Told by an Idiot, will be performed on the new Royal Shakespeare Theatre stage.
- Michael Boyd's production of "Anthony and Cleopatra" will reopen the Swan.
- Young People's Shakespeare productions of Hamlet, in association with Told by an Idiot will be performed in the Swan.
Buy tickets online from the RSC website; by post, writing to Box Office, The Courtyard Theatre, Southern Lane, Stratford-upon-Avon CV37 6BB, UK, or by ringing the ticket hotline 0844 800 1110 (from within the UK only).
