Four Shakespeares & Four New Works for RSC Summer
Date: 1 January 2001
The Royal Shakespeare Company have announced a season of nine plays that will be performed in its three Stratford-upon-Avon theatres from March 21 to October 13, 2001. The season comprises four Shakespeares, four new plays (including Martin McDonagh's latest play), and a rarely seen Restoration comedy.
In the Royal Shakespeare Theatre main house, where designer Alison Chitty will create a single aesthetic to serve for all three productions, the season will commence with a new staging by Steven Pimlott of Hamlet, starring Samuel West in the title role. It follows two notable Hamlets last year, that of Mark Rylance at Shakespeare's Globe and Simon Russell Beale's at the Royal National Theatre, and will see the son of actors Timothy West and Prunella Scales following on from another title role he is currently playing for the RSC, Richard II, at London's Barbican Pit. Hamlet will preview from March 31, prior to opening on May 2. Next, Lindsay Posner (currently represented by his production of The Rivals at London's Barbican Theatre) will stage Twelfth Night, with Guy Henry playing Malvolio. Previews are from April 13, prior to opening on May 10. Finally in the main house, Julius Caesar will be staged by Edward Hall, son of Sir Peter, with previews from July 13 prior to a July 26 opening.
The Shakespearean season will be completed in the Swan Theatre by a new production of King John, directed by Gregory Doran, with previews from March 21 prior to opening on March 28. Next Tim Supple (who previously staged an acclaimed The Comedy of Errors and the current RSC production of Goldoni's The Servant to Two Masters at the West End's New Ambassadors) will return to the RSC to stage a rarely seen Restoration comedy by William Wycherley, Love in a Wood, previewing from April 12 prior to opening on April 19.
Side-by-side with these classic plays, the RSC will stage four world premieres. In the Swan, Jubilee by [Peter Barnes will be staged by Gregory Doran, with previews from July 12 prior to opening on July 19. In the studio Other Place Theatre, A Russian in the Woods by Peter Whelan (author of the RSC hit but Broadway flop The Herbal Bed) will be directed by Robert Delamere, previewing from March 21, prior to opening on March 29. Next, Martin McDonagh (whose plays The Beauty Queen of Leenane and The Lonesome West were both seen on Broadway, with The Cripple of Inishmaan seen at the Public and A Skull in Connemara about to be presented by the Roundabout Theatre Company at the Gramercy Theatre, opening Feb 22) will premiere The Lieutenant of Inishmore in a production by Wilson Milam, previewing from April 11 prior to opening on April 18. Finally, Michael Attenborough will direct David Edgar's The Prisoner's Dilemma, previewing from July 11 prior to opening July 18.
RSC Artistic Director Adrian Noble comments, “The Summer Festival 2001 rightly places new writing at the core of the RSC's season.... I am delighted that almost half of the Stratford season is devoted to staging world premieres by important playwrights tackling major political themes.”
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