The Stage

RSC programme boasts Hall’s return to Stratford

Published Wednesday 8 February 2006 at 13:15 by Alistair Smith

Royal Shakespeare Company artistic director Michael Boyd has unveiled the full programme for the organisation’s season of the Complete Works, including a return to Stratford for former RSC founder Peter Hall.

In addition to the highlights confirmed last summer, which included the return of Patrick Stewart and Ian McKellen to the company, Boyd has now revealed that both Peter Hall and his son Edward will bring their own companies to Stratford to stage Measure for Measure and The Taming of the Shrew respectively.

The festival will feature 23 RSC shows, 17 international productions and 14 by UK-based companies and will mark the first time that all of Shakespeare’s plays and poems have been staged at the same event.

“With visiting companies from almost every continent, this is a real opportunity to extend our relationships with audiences and artists from around the world,” said Boyd. “As well as a platform to celebrate our own work, the festival is a conscious attempt to showcase and explore the way different cultures, languages, styles of theatre and artforms approach Shakespeare.

“Like any great festival, there’s plenty of opportunity to experiment and stumble across the new. There’s enough in this year to cover all tastes but in the process you might also experience the Sky Orchestra floating over Stratford in hot air balloons, or catch the Tiny Ninja’s unique take on Hamlet.”

Other newly-revealed highlights include Sheffield Theatres artistic director Sam West bringing his new company to Stratford for the first time with its production of As You Like It and Cheek by Jowl performing its all-male Russian version of Twelfth Night.

Meanwhile, the Berliner Ensemble, which inspired the creation of the modern RSC, will present its production of Richard II, directed by the company’s artistic director Claus Peymann.

New York-based theatre company Tiny Ninja Theater will perform Hamlet for the first time in the UK, using an inch-high cast of plastic Ninja figurines - this will be performed in the Cube, a new 100-seat space constructed within the Royal Shakespeare Theatre auditorium. Also, a new project, curated by Gavin Bryars, will see Shakespeare’s sonnets set to music by contemporary musicians.

Patrick Stewart, who had already been confirmed as Antony in Antony and Cleopatra, will now also take on the role of Prospero in The Tempest, while Janet Suzman has been cast as Volumnia in Coriolanus and Tamsin Greig and Joseph Millson will play Beatrice and Benedick in Marianne Elliott’s production of Much Ado About Nothing.

Boyd added: “The festival is a year-long exchange with a group of artists who share more than just performing Shakespeare. I hope the legacy of the festival will be a set of partnerships and new relationships that extend well beyond the life of the Complete Works and an outward-looking RSC that is challenged and stimulated by theatre from around the world.”