RSC activities announced for Shakespeare’s Birthday Weekend

Photo credit: Peter Lopeman

The Royal Shakespeare Company is offering visitors to Stratford-upon-Avon a wide range of activities to help celebrate Shakespeare’s Birthday over the weekend of 23 & 24 April. 

Free events include a performance of Out of the Deep Blue, a family-friendly outdoor show about the environment featuring a 13-foot-tall puppet, and the opportunity to enjoy the RSC’s new Dell Forest Garden, a space for reflection which also aims to improve the area’s biodiversity.

There will also be the chance to see the final two parts of the Henry VI trilogy, Henry VI: Rebellion (1.15pm) and Wars of the Roses (7.15pm) on 23 April, and to be part of the live audience for an edition of the popular podcast, The Guilty Feminist, at 7.30pm on 24 April. All three performances will take place in the Royal Shakespeare Theatre.

Prior to the birthday weekend on 21 April, a newly revised second edition of The Complete Works of Shakespeare will be published, the perfect gift for all Shakespeare lovers.

Autin Dance Theatre will perform Out of the Deep Blue, an outdoor spectacle ideal for children and families featuring Eko, a 13-foot-tall Sea Giant puppet, operated by five world-class puppeteers, and the character of Violet, played by a female contemporary dancer.

Waves wash Eko, a Sea Giant onto the shore. There he encounters vulnerable Violet. These two beings – an ancient creature and a young girl – offer us their stories: an impactful dialogue around our earth’s climate emergency, told through dance, movement and masterful puppeteering. A story about the power of understanding that speaks to the world at large. 

Throughout March and April, the RSC and Forest of Hearts – a Stratford-based organisation which aims to produce ‘gardens for good’ – will work with members of the local community to create The Dell Forest Garden which will be open to all from Saturday 23 April.

The Dell, located by the Holy Trinity Church, is a quiet outdoor space which includes a number of memorial plaques. The aim of the Forest Garden is to make an area for health and wellbeing activities, for personal reflection, and to increase biodiversity. 

Inspired by the memorials in The Dell, the RSC has commissioned artist Faye Claridge to create an outdoor art exhibition, Room for the Soul, launching on 23 April. Faye is working with volunteers from Forest of Hearts and local residents to create a magical outdoor lounge where plants and flowers overwhelm furniture, while lampshades and family portraits flutter in theatres overhead.

Henry VI: Rebellion, a fresh new take on Henry VI: Part Two, hurtles through one of the most turbulent periods in English History, asking the question: can the people ever really decide their own future?

Wars of the Roses is the thrilling climax to the Henry VI trilogy. The tussle for the English crown escalates to the battlefield and the families of Lancaster and York drench their brutal conflict in sweat and blood. As power is shunted back and forth, there is deceit, betrayal and murder at every turn. The scene is set for the final chapter as we get our first glimpse of the villainous Duke of Gloucester – soon to become Richard III.

Both productions are directed by Owen Horsley, and feature Mark Quartley and Minnie Gale as Henry VI and Margaret respectively.

There will also be an opportunity to find out more about the Henry VI productions from actors and members of the creative team as part of Henry VI Unwrapped. This session will offer a peek into the rehearsal room, with the Assistant Director and members of the cast looking at moments from the play. They will give an insight into how a scene is taken off the page and onto the stage, and reveal the type of exercises and discussions that took place during rehearsals.

Less of a podcast and more of a global phenomenon, The Guilty Feminist is part comedy, part deep-dive discussion and part activism. Hosted by Deborah Frances-White and featuring a different array of world class guests each night, together, they examine our noble goals as 21st century feminists – and our hypocrisies and insecurities that undermine those goals.

With over 95 million downloads in six years, this is the show that proves you don’t have to be perfect to be a force for meaningful change.

Tickets for Henry VI: Rebellion, Wars of the Roses, Henry VI Unwrapped, and The Guilty Feminist are available now here.