The Royal Shakespeare Company’s current production of Richard III will be broadcast to cinemas across the UK from 28 September, it has been announced. 

Directed by Gregory Doran, the production features Arthur Hughes in the title role and is the first time that the part of Richard III has been performed by a disabled actor in the RSC’s history.

Richard III will also be broadcast as live direct into UK classrooms for free on Thursday 24 November. This will include a supporting package of online resources which have been designed to give students a unique insight into the creative process and interpretive choices that directors and actors make as they prepare to stage a new production.

Both parts of Henry VI: Rebellion and Wars of the Roses will also be available to watch on demand via the Royal Shakespeare Company website from today until 30 September, with tickets £10 each.  

The productions were recorded live during their original run in Stratford-upon-Avon in April 2022 and, together with Henry VI Part One, chart the vivid and enthralling story of The Wars of the Roses and the brutal struggle for the English crown.

RSC Acting Artistic Director, Erica Whyman, said; “I am delighted that we will share this critically acclaimed Richard III on screen. Gregory Doran, Artistic Director Emeritus, has directed a vivid and imaginative production, in which Arthur Hughes is both terrifying and gloriously charismatic.

“We remain deeply committed to making our work as accessible as possible so I am delighted that audiences in cinemas and at home, and students in their classrooms will be able to see this marvellous cast in Shakespeare’s shockingly timely play about tyranny. We have adapted all of our Shakespeare productions in this way since 2012, most recently Much Ado About Nothing and The Winter’s Tale on BBC iPlayer, part of our decade-long project to capture all of Shakespeare’s plays on screen.”

The full trilogy of Henry VI plays, which includes Gregory Doran and Owen Horsley’s epic collaboration; Henry VI: Part One Open Rehearsal Project, will be released on DVD in early 2023, with further details to be announced.

For full cinema listings, please click here.