RSC to present socially distanced indoor shows this winter and close two venues until 2022

The RSC has revealed its strategy for the coming two years.

This winter, socially distanced performances will be taking place in the Royal Shakespeare Theatre with reduced capacity and online streaming options available. Full details will be revealed at the beginning of next month.

The company's two 2020 spring productions, The Winter's Tale and The Comedy of Errors, are currently expected to run at the Royal Shakespeare Theatre in spring 2021, when it is hoped that social distancing restrictions will be eased.

The musical adaptation of The Magician's Elephant, due to open in November 2021, is planned to go ahead as set earlier this year.

Two of the venues, the Swan Theatre and The Other Place, will remain closed until 2022, while the two-part War of the Roses show set to be rescheduled to the year after next, in conjunction with a run of Richard III.

As for previously revealed cuts to staffing, the RSC hopes to "reduce the number of people leaving the Company due to compulsory redundancy to below 90, at most a 17 per cent reduction in the workforce". The consultation is expected to be finalised in early December.

Artistic director Gregory Doran said: "We want to welcome our audiences back, to re-open again and to help our regional and wider economy rebuild itself, bringing people back into our towns and cities. Our financial position and uncertainty around future restrictions means that our immediate focus will be on our largest theatre in Stratford-upon-Avon – the Royal Shakespeare Theatre. We're planning for a Winter programme of events which will see a small number of socially distanced audiences back in our buildings, an exciting prospect with audiences also joining us online from their homes."