Erica Whyman has announced details of her final season of work as Acting Artistic Director of the Royal Shakespeare Company (RSC) ahead of her stepping down this month.

This season includes two magical new productions in the Royal Shakespeare Theatre, whilst the Swan Theatre sees the return of an Elizabethan classic and the stage premiere of a new play, plus a new Shakespeare touring production adapted for ages 8-13 years.

Justin Audibert directs The Box of Delights in the Royal Shakespeare Theatre, based on the much-loved children’s novel by John Masefield; Olivier award-winning playwright Isobel McArthur (Pride and Prejudice*) (*sort of)) makes her RSC debut with a rollicking new adaptation of Thomas Heywood’s The Fair Maid of the West in the Swan Theatre; and Eleanor Rhode returns to direct William Shakespeare’s A Midsummer Night’s Dream in the Royal Shakespeare Theatre.

The world stage premiere production of Mark Ravenhill’s Ben and Imo, directed by Erica Whyman, will open in the Swan Theatre in Spring 2024, a witty and revealing play examining the creative relationship between Benjamin Britten and Imogen Holst; The Merchant of Venice 1936 returns to the Swan Theatre for a limited run following its autumn sell out season, directed by Brigid Larmour and featuring Tracy-Ann Oberman as Shylock; and First Encounters with Shakespeare 90-minute re-imagining of Romeo and Juliet, directed by Philip J Morris for 8–13 year olds and their families, will tour to schools and communities across the UK.

Erica Whyman said: “I am properly proud to be announcing this, my last season as Acting Artistic Director. To lead this organisation out of the pandemic has been a privilege and I am enormously proud of the strong foundations I leave for its next chapter.

“All these productions will celebrate the power of imagination, from Shakespeare’s delicious fantasy of fairies and lovers to Imogen Holst and Benjamin Britten wrestling with the rigours of a Royal Commission, to the faith a child has that Christmas is worth fighting for. Not to mention the glorious Bess, our Fair Maid, whose adventures in a man’s world will be exuberantly re-imagined, and a new Romeo and Juliet which will insist we properly imagine what it is to be young in a dangerous world.

“This season and the artists who lead it - Isobel, Mark, Eleanor, Justin, Piers, Philip, Tracy-Ann and Brigid - embody the qualities I hope have defined my tenure; courage, honesty and ingenuity. I am grateful to them and all the artists and staff who have walked these last wild and rewarding years with me.”

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