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Dateline: 28th June, 2007
The RSC in London The Royal Shakespeare Company's eight plays in Shakespeare’s History Cycle, directed by RSC Artistic Director Michael Boyd, will transfer for an eight week season to London’s Roundhouse in spring 2008.
In 2002 the Roundhouse staged the RSC’s productions of The Tempest, The Winter’s Tale and Pericles. Already well known for its ‘event’ theatre and now newly refurbished, it recently presented Tim Supple’s Indian version of A Midsummer Night’s Dream. With Michael Boyd’s Histories Cycle, the company will recreate the intimacy of The Courtyard Theatre to house the eclectic staging of the eight History plays, where actors use every corner of the stage and auditorium as they did in Stratford. The productions will play in repertoire with chances to see all eight performed in sequence (as they are scheduled to do in Stratford-upon-Avon from February 2008).
Three very different pieces of new work are also planned to play in two of London’s leading new writing venues, starting this autumn with a new play by Anthony Neilson created especially for the actors of the RSC ensemble, who have recently been performing Macbeth and Macbett in The Swan in Stratford. Fresh from his recent sell-out National Theatre of Scotland production of The Wonderful World of Dissocia at the Royal Court, Anthony Neilson will write and direct a new piece which is tailored to the skills and daring of eleven RSC actors, further developing his themes of love, perversity and the wildness at the outer reaches of the imagination. They will work together to develop a new play in just six weeks, producing a bold new piece of theatre, as yet untitled, to run at the Soho Theatre from November this year until January 2008. This on-going association with the Soho Theatre builds on the success of the RSC New Work Festivals in 2005 and 2006 which contained such hit shows as The American Pilot by David Greig, Breakfast with Mugabe by Fraser Grace, and Trade by Debbie Tucker Green.
At the Tricycle, Leo Butler’s new play I’ll be the Devil will debut in early spring 2008. This epic, brutal play set in occupied Ireland in 1775 is written in response to The Tempest. Given a work-in-progress public reading as part of the RSC’s Complete Works Festival under the title One of These Days, this new play will be premiered at the Tricycle.
Also at the Tricycle, there will be a chance to see the updated Days of Significance by Roy Williams. This specially commissioned response to Shakespeare’s Much Ado About Nothing enjoyed critical acclaim in the Swan Theatre as part of the Festival. Set in market town England and the deserts of Iraq, RoyWilliams has updated the play to accommodate the rapidly changing situation in Basra and how it impacts on those at home. Both these productions will be performed by dedicated companies of actors and will form a six week season of new work from the RSC in early spring next year.
As previously announced, Trevor Nunn’s productions of King Lear and The Seagull will transfer to the New London theatre for a nine week run in November this year, following their international tour.
Michael Boyd, RSC Artistic Director, said, "The Complete Works Festival has left the Company with a valuable legacy which continues with more Shakespeare and new work being transferred to a range of venues in the capital for London audiences to enjoy.
"As well as the company’s continued commitment to exploring and celebrating work with theatre practitioners from abroad such as Silviu Purcarete, and Canada’s National Arts Centre, we are also putting our energies behind making our new work widely presented. A new show by Anthony Neilson will be premiered in London, along with two plays at the Tricycle - a fully staged version of Leo Butler’s new play, and another chance to see the Roy Williams play - both these commissioned as part of the Responses to Shakespeare thread of the Complete Works Festival.
"As the Royal Shakespeare Theatre continues towards its transformation, The Courtyard Theatre is stepping up to the mark as a vibrant and popular temporary venue and continues to forge a new audience for us in our home town. We will be continuing the Festival’s cross venue flexibility by staging our Christmas shows at Stratford’s Civic Hall and reprising the open air theatre at the Dell, and the Film Festival this summer."
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