RSC's Macbeth with Christopher Eccleston and Niamh Cusack transfers to Barbican in new season

The RSC's productions of Romeo and Juliet, Macbeth and The Merry Wives of Windsor are to transfer to the Barbican later this year.

Macbeth, which stars Christopher Eccleston and Niamh Cusack and is directed by Polly Findlay, is about to open in Stratford, and will transfer to the Barbican on 23 October. Romeo and Juliet is Erica Whyman's production which combines a professional cast with young people from the RSC associate schools in London who will perform as part of the chorus.

The Merry Wives of Windsor is directed by Fiona Laird and is a modern staging of the comedy, starring David Troughton. It opens on 12 December and runs until 5 January with previews from 7 December.

Elsewhere, the venue's year-long season entitled The Art of Change, will see Katie Mitchell bring her production of The Malady of Death (3 to 6 October) over from Theatre des Bouffes du Nord. The piece looks at intimacy, gender, the male and female gaze and is adapted by Alice Birch, from Marguerite Duras' novella.

In September, The Oxford Samuel Beckett Theatre Trust Award Winner 2018 Alan Fielden with JAMS will stage their Marathon (20 to 29 September). It looks at a man who is sent from the front line to deliver a message to his king that the war has lost and the enemy is coming.

Storme Toolis' Redefining Juliet will run in The Pit on 30 November. Created by Toolis who has cerebral palsy and uses a wheelchair, the piece is directed by Alice Knight and celebrates challenging perceptions about who can play Shakespeare's iconic role.

As part of 14-18 NOW, poet Alice Oswald's Memorial (27 to 30 September) will be performed by Australian actress Helen Morse and a 215-strong community choir.

As previously announced, the latest collaboration between playwright Enda Walsh and composer Donnacha Dennehy also arrives at the Barbican in 2018. Modern opera The Second Violinist, about an orchestral violinist who is consumed by social media platforms and violent video games, will make its UK premiere from 6 to 8 September, following its Best New Opera win at The Irish Times Irish Theatre Awards 2017.

Other previously announced productions in the season include Boy Blue's Blak Whyte Gray, CN Lester's Transpose: The Future and the world premiere of Zoë Svendsen's We Know Not What We May Be.

It was also announced that the RSC's production of Imperium is to transfer to the West End.