New season of Shakespeare coming to the RSC in 2023

Photo credit: Joe Bailey

Acting Artistic Director, Erica Whyman, has today 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.

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.

Whyman 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 smarted 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 expectations 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.”

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.

Making his RSC debut is The Stage Debut award-winner 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. The production will also feature a Community Leaders Chorus made up of six women from each location on the UK tour. A local Musical Director will also be recruited at each venue to work with their group.

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. The production will mark a personal milestone for Doran, 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 and runs until Saturday 27 May.

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. 

In July 2023, Paul Ainsworth will direct the RSC’s young company of 13-18 year olds recruited from across the country, to present their interpretation of Shakespeare’s Hamlet in The Other Palace. 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 affect the inheritors of the nation.

Award-winning director and site-specific theatre-maker Wils Wilson completes the line-up with a thrilling new interpretation of Shakespeare’s Macbeth, opening in the Royal Shakespeare Theatre in Autumn 2023.

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