RSC announces 2026 autumn season shows with Harriet Walter, Middlemarch and Jonathan Groff

The Royal Shakespeare Company has announced further productions for its 2026–27 season.

Harriet Walter returns to the company to play Brutus in a revival of Julius Caesar directed by Phyllida Lloyd. First staged at the Donmar Warehouse in 2012, the production is set in a women’s prison and performed by an all-female company. It tours to secondary schools in England from 21 September to 23 October before running at The Other Place from 5 to 28 November. The tour forms part of the company’s Associate Schools Programme.

The season includes As You Like It led by Jonathan Groff – which we’ve covered in more detail here. The programme continues alongside the previously announced stage production of Game of Thrones: The Mad King.

A two-part adaptation of Middlemarch has been written by Nina Raine and directed by Jeremy Herrin in a co-production with Second Half Productions. Part One runs from 1 October and Part Two from 10 October in the Swan Theatre, with performances continuing until 16 January. Press performances take place on 28 October.

A new adaptation of The Three Musketeers is written and directed by Paul Hunter and presented in association with Told by an Idiot. It runs at the Royal Shakespeare Theatre from 28 November to 9 January, with press night on 8 December.

The season also marks 20 years of the company’s Associate Schools Programme, which works with schools and theatres across England. The Julius Caesar tour will be accompanied by workshops and discussions in schools and communities, with related events taking place in Stratford-upon-Avon in November.

Priority booking opens on 2 March, with public booking from 18 March. Priority booking for Game of Thrones: The Mad King opens on 14 April, with public booking from 24 April.