Royal Shakespeare Company Schedule - What's on at the RSC in 2008

With two of its important Stratford-upon-Avon Theatres closed for updating (Royal Shakespeare Renovations - 2007-2010 Plans at Shakespeare Theatres) The Royal Shakespeare Company is still going great guns. Plans for 2008 will keep three ensembles of 509 actors busy with 13 Shakespeare productions and five, full scale productions of new plays. In Stratford, the temporary Courtyard Theatre is standing in while building works are underway. In London, plays will be performed at the Soho Theatre, The Roundhouse, and the Tricycle Theatre. Among the highlights is a new production of Hamlet featuring David Tennant and Patrick Stewart.

Here's what you can plan to see in 2008

In Stratford-upon-Avon:

• The Merchant of Venice, Tim Carroll directs and previews begin April 3.
• The Taming of the Shrew, Conall Morrison directs, previews from April 24.
• A Midsummer Night's Dream, Gregory Doran directs, previews from May 9.
• Hamlet, Gregory Doran directs, David Tennant as Hamlet and Patrick Stewart as Claudius. Previews from July 24.
• Love's Labours Lost, Gregory Doran directs, previews from October 2, 2008.

In London

• The Histories - The full cycle of Shakespeare's history plays, an account of a turbulent period of English history, will be performed in repertoire at the Roundhouse Theatre in Camden. If you missed this fascinating series of plays - which includes special three-play days during which the six "Henry" plays are performed back-to-back - You can catch up with it in London from April 2008. The plays include:
  • Richard II
  • Henry IV Part I
  • Henry IV Part II
  • Henry V
  • Henry VI Parts I, II, III
  • Richard III
• Five new plays by Adriano Shaplin, Marina Carr, Leo Butler, Roy Williams and Anthony Neilson. Among them, The Tragedy of Thomas Hobbes, by award winning American playwright and RSC/Warwick University CAPITAL International Writer in Residence, Adriano Shaplin, was commissioned by The Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT)and RSC with funds from the Ensemble Studio Theatre/Alfred P. Sloan Foundation Science & Technology Project.

Buy tickets online from the RSC website which includes links to the Roundhouse, the Tricycle and the Soho Theatres; by post, writing to Box Office, RSC, Waterside, Stratford-upon-Avon CV37 6BB, UK, or by ringing the ticket hotline 0844 800 1110 (from within the UK only).Ticket packages for The Histories are available.