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Dateline: 20th November, 2006
RSC News The HistoriesFor the first time in its history, the Royal Shakespeare Company is to stage all eight of Shakespeare’s history plays with the same company of actors. Led by the RSC’s Artistic Director, Michael Boyd, the project will last 2 ½ years and culminates during 2008 with one company of around 35 actors performing 24 hours of Shakespeare. The Histories demonstrates the RSC’s continued commitment to ensemble, nurturing a company of actors who work and train together over years.
Shakespeare’s chronicle covers a turbulent 88 years of English history, from Richard II to Richard III with the acting ensemble playing over 250 roles in the course of the marathon history cycle. The RSC last staged Shakespeare’s history cycle in 2000/01 although with more than one company of actors, and four directors. This time one company will play all eight plays in The Courtyard Theatre, the RSC’s temporary venue that allows the Company to perform in Stratford throughout the transformation of the Royal Shakespeare Theatre, which begins in Spring 2007.
The Histories began in July 2006 with the Henry VI trilogy opening The Courtyard Theatre as part of The Complete Works festival. The cycle continues in the order it was written, plotting Shakespeare’s development as a playwright before the complete tetralogy is played in historical order. The company will add Richard III to the repertoire in January 2007, Richard II in July, closely followed by the two parts of Henry IV. This production will see veteran actor David Warner in his first RSC role since his seminal Hamlet in 1966, playing Falstaff. David’s return will complete the circle on the first RSC Histories cycle – The Wars of the Roses – staged in 1963/64 by Peter Hall and John Barton in which David played Richard II and Henry VI. Henry V is the final play to join the Histories in November 2007, followed by performances of the complete cycle in Stratford and London during 2008.
The same ensemble will also stage a new play in addition to Shakespeare’s chronicle of English history. Adriano Shaplin, Artistic Director of the New York theatre company The Riot Group, who also wrote the award winning play The Pugilist Specialist, has been seconded to Boyd’s Histories company, working closely with the actors to create a new piece of work tailored to that particular ensemble. The appointment of Shaplin, the first International Writer in Residence working between the RSC and the University of Warwick, aims to restore the link between the living writer and the ensemble – a relationship that was critical to Shakespeare’s playwriting. 2007 Season in Stratford-upon-AvonRoyal Shakespeare Theatre Gregory Doran directs the final production in the Royal Shakespeare Theatre prior to its transformation – Coriolanus - with Janet Suzman as Volumnia, Timothy West as Menenius, and William Houston in the title role. The Courtyard Theatre Following the Complete Works festival, the Royal Shakespeare Theatre will close for its transformation and the 1,000 seat temporary Courtyard Theatre will become the RSC’s main house in Stratford, with the Histories forming its core programme through 2007.
Playing in repertoire with the Histories will be a new company of actors with a production of Shakespeare’s comedy Twelfth Night, directed by Neil Bartlett (former artistic director of the Lyric Hammersmith) whose last production for the RSC was The Prince of Homburg in 2001. This company will also then reprise Nancy Meckler’s acclaimed production of The Comedy of Errors (part of the RSC’s Comedies season in 2005) and will then embark on a tour of Number One venues around the UK.
The Swan Theatre The 2007 Swan Season will see a new ensemble performing Shakespeare’s Macbeth, directed by the Irish writer and director Conall Morrison in his RSC debut.
Alongside Macbeth, the ensemble will play Eugene Ionesco’s surrealist and darkly funny re-envisioning of the tragedy, Macbett, directed by the acclaimed Romanian theatre artist Silviu Purcarete in an English version by Tanya Ronder.
The season also includes another chance to see Dash Arts’ highly praised pan-Indian production of A Midsummer Night’s Dream directed by Tim Supple and commissioned by the British Council in India. The production was first seen in the UK as part of The Complete Works festival and returns to Stratford in May for a three week run as part of a national and international tour. Please note that all three Archive indices are very long and will therefore take some time to download.
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