RSC All New Seasons

Peak RSC balloon era has to be the Dirty Dancing-esque King John with all the pastels?

On the subject of balloons 🎈🎈🎈🎈

The RSC has got a trigger warning on display for Richard III alerting the audience to the popping of a red balloon

I appreciate that loud popping noises can cause very mild distress to a tiny number of people

But this feels like a trigger warning too far

For some people it’s absolutely essential because it could much more than mild distress.

I don’t understand the argument that it’s gone too far. If it protects even one person surely it’s worth it? It’s just a single line of text, it doesn’t cost any money or barely any effort to do, and anyone it doesn’t apply to can easily just ignore it.

So Tuesday the new season is revealed and the last with EW…..so much relief. Anticipate lots of community work to go out with a bang and second rate directors. The new team get in midsummer so no impact on the upcoming season……apart from Doran’s Cymbeline and EW Hamlet in Swan no ideas at all but hope all theatres in operation and a full season although not in repertoire next year.

Considering we had a production in 2016, another just 7 years later feels a bit quick particularly when you think how little they have done since then.

I'd love to see Cymbeline again. I've not seen it since the Cheek by Jowl production 2007 with Tom Hiddleston's brilliant double of Posthumus and Cloten. And Harriet Walter as Imogen in about 1990 is one of my favourite acting performances ever. I'd like to see it cast with a major actor as Cymbeline to see what difference that makes (SRB?! Rylance? Alex Jennings) to the production.

"RSC acting artistic director Erica Whyman has announced details of the company’s programming for 2023.

Next year marks the 400th anniversary of the publication of Shakespeare’s First Folio, and in response, the RSC will stage five titles that would have been lost if the First Folio had not been published in 1623 – The Tempest, Julius Caesar, Cymbeline, As You Like It and Macbeth.

They will run consecutively in the Royal Shakespeare Theatre from January to October 2023 in a break from the company’s usual repertory model, kicking off from 26 January to 4 March with Elizabeth Freestone's production of The Tempest. It stars Alex Kingston (Doctor Who), who returns to the RSC, as Prospero, alongside Jessica Rhodes making her company debut as Miranda.

Next up is Julius Caesar, directed by Atri Banerjee in his RSC debut. The production premieres in Stratford from 18 March to 8 April, and will visit nine venues across the country including RSC Partner Theatres. It will feature a Community Leaders Chorus made up of six women from each location on the UK tour.

Venues will include the Marlowe Theatre Canterbury, Hall for Cornwall in Truro, The Alhambra in Bradford, Theatre Royal Newcastle, The Grand Theatre in Blackpool, Theatre Royal Nottingham, Theatre Royal Norwich, Theatre Royal in York and The Lowry, Salford.

Gregory Doran, RSC artistic director emeritus, will direct his 50th production for the RSC with a new staging of Cymbeline (22 April to 27 May). This will mark a personal milestone for Doran, who will complete his journey to direct every Shakespeare play featured in the First Folio.

In July 2023, Paul Ainsworth directs the RSC's young company of 13 to 18-year-olds recruited from across the country, to present their abridged interpretation of Hamlet. Rounding off the season will be Omar Elerian's "playful and provocative" take on As You Like It, which runs in summer 2023 (dates to be announced). "

Am guessing that the Young company will be doing Macbeth rather than Hamlet

Very poor work by the press department and those who signed off on the release

There's also a complete absence of Swan or TOP announcements

I assumed the switch away from a repertory system was purely economic, shorter contracts for fewer actors at any particular time.

Doing a schools production of Hamlet in the RST is ambitious, it will only sell to friends & family. The Other Place would have been more suitable.

I just don't get the community work they are doing at all - they put 6 local women into a touring Julius Caesar, what's the point ? It is great for those 6 individuals and their families and it generates some local press coverage for the production but beyond that what does it do ? As a normal audience member why should I be in the slightest bit interested in this ? And beyond that how does it provide any long-term benefit to the local community ? It is deploying the RSC's huge resources for the benefit of six individuals. Are there any other theatres who follow this mode of community work of putting a few amateurs in a professional production rather than, say, helping to stage genuine community productions (I'm thinking of "The Passion" that Michael Sheen was involved with) or providing expert help to established long-term amateur community theatre groups ? 

Is there any other art form that treats community engagement in this way ? Opera companies who use a few amateur singers, or art galleries that mix in a few paintings by local amateurs ?