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Dateline: 2nd October, 2003 It's Tragic as RSC Announces Boyd's First Season Four of William Shakespeare's greatest tragedies performed by actors rehearsing twice as long as normal are the highlights of RSC artistic director Michael Boyd's inaugural season in Stratford. Macbeth, Romeo and Juliet, Hamlet and King Lear will all be performed on the main stage, the Scottish play being the first offering and starting on March 18th. Greg Hicks, last seen earlier this year in the title role in Coriolanus and as Dr Caius in The Merry Wives of Windsor, plays Macbeth. Boyd, who officially took over from Adrian Noble in March, will make his directorial debut as artistic director with Hamlet. Toby Stephens returns to the company to play the Danish prince. Coincidentally his last appearance at the RSC was in the title role of Coriolanus in 1994-95. Corin Redgrave, currently appearing at Lichfield Garrick in Resurrection and The Recruiting Officer, will star in King Lear. Founding director of the Riverside Studios in Hammersmith, Peter Gill will direct Romeo and Juliet. Casting will be announced later. Michael Boyd has re-committed the RSC to a dedicated core of actors. The move is designed to increase opportunities for training and experiment. They will spend about 12 weeks in rehearsal studying voice, movement and Shakespeare's language. Eventually more than half the 36 actors contracted for the ensemble are expected to continue with the company. "We're able to paint on a large canvas, working with big ideas in depth over a longer period than is possible for most theatre companies, which gives us a responsibility to experiment, to take risks," said Boyd. "We've always had a reputation as somewhere where actors cut their teeth. Now I think we've got a real chance to make coming to the RSC a transforming experience. I want actors, at every stage of their careers, to come to the RSC and give performances they didn't know they were capable of." Boyd's season starts with Beauty and the Beast on the main stage while in the Swan will be All's Well That Ends Well and Othello. As we reported in July, Judi Dench and Antony Sher will star in those two productions. As well as the core ensemble, there'll be a smaller group of 20 actors performing four plays from the Spanish Golden Age in the Swan. These will include works by Lope de Vega and Miguel de Cervantes. In the last two weeks of September the two companies will come together for the RSC's first New Work Festival. One of the projects will be Pontius Pilate, directed by Boyd and inspired by Anne Wroe's book. Please note that all three Archive indices are very long and will therefore take some time to download.
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