Royal Shakespeare Company announces full programme for Spring/Summer 2027
The RSC has announced full details of its Summer 2027 programme, which sees Emmy and Golden Globe award-winning actor Elizabeth Debicki make her debut with the company as Richard II, alongside Damien Molony in the role of Coriolanus.
The season comprises four Shakespeare plays, which demonstrate his continued relevance to who we are and how we understand the world around us, and two world premieres inspired by the original novels from Virginia Woolf and Susanna Clarke. Completing the season is a thrilling two-hander, arriving fresh from the West End, which vividly re-imagines the relationship between a young William Shakespeare and his sparring partner, Christopher Marlowe, for a new generation.
Opening the season in the Royal Shakespeare Theatre, RSC Associate Director Elizabeth Freestone returns to the company following her acclaimed 2023 version of The Tempest to direct Damien Molony (Bergerac, Two Weeks in August) as Coriolanus.
Running in the Royal Shakespeare Theatre from 6 February – 20 March, this timely reimagining examines Shakespeare’s political tragedy through the lens of contemporary populism, societal instability and elemental scarcities in a turbulent world, as power struggles surface, old hierarchies crumble and the race to control critical resources begins.
Marking her Royal Shakespeare Company debut in 2027, Elizabeth Debicki (The Crown) takes up the titular role in William Shakespeare’s Richard II, in a new production by Daniel Raggett. The production opens in the Royal Shakespeare Theatre from 10 April – 22 May.
Following her sell-out summer production of The Two Gentlemen of Verona, Joanna Bowman returns to direct Shakespeare’s timeless and devastating tragedy Romeo and Juliet from 6 July – 28 August in the Royal Shakespeare Theatre.
In the Swan Theatre, RSC Co-Artistic Director Daniel Evans brings Liz Duffy Adams’ Born With Teeth to Stratford-upon-Avon following an acclaimed West End run, in a co-production with Playful Productions and Grain of Sand Productions.
Running from 12 February – 3 April, this ‘sizzling and intelligent slice of historical fiction’ (Guardian) explores the dangerous rivalry between two literary icons at odds with their world; Christopher ‘Kit’ Marlowe - a notorious freethinker and scandalous spy for the Crown - and Will Shakespeare, jobbing actor and ambitious young playwright still searching for his voice.
Across three secret meetings in the back room of a pub, the table between them becomes their stage and battlefield. Pens sharpen. Loyalties shift. And two extraordinary minds discover what they might create together - if they don’t destroy each other first.
Born With Teeth replaces the previously scheduled Othello, directed by Monique Touko and starring Sharon D Clarke in the title role, as Sharon takes time to undergo treatment for cancer. The production is currently postponed with further details to be announced in due course.
Also in the Swan Theatre, making its world stage premiere from 16 April – 12 June, RSC Co-Artistic Director Tamara Harvey presents Mrs Dalloway, a new adaptation of Virginia Woolf’s pioneering novel by former RSC Writer-in-Residence Zoe Cooper in her playwriting debut for the company.
Set in a city suspended between the aftermath of war and future unrest, Mrs Dalloway’s deep exploration of the interior lives of its central protagonists, socialite and political wife Clarissa Dalloway and war veteran Septimus Smith, is reimagined afresh in this artful new adaptation. Fragments of conversations and chance observations spark memories, yearnings and foreboding, as two lives, lived apart but in parallel, connect with life-changing consequences.
This will be followed by the world stage premiere of Piranesi; an immersive theatrical world that invites audiences to turn detective in a treacherous labyrinth of shadow and illusion.
Adapted for the stage by Sami Ibrahim and directed by Ned Bennett, Piranesi is based on the award-winning novel by Susanna Clarke, author of the New York Times bestseller Jonathan Strange & Mr Norrell. The production opens in the Swan Theatre from 3 July – 21 August.
Joining the previously announced Brock’s Mill in The Other Place, Artistic Director of the Sherman Theatre, Francesca Goodridge directs Shakespeare's first comedy in a brand new First Encounters with Shakespeare production of The Comedy of Errors. The production, which opens in The Other Place from 16 July – 4 September, is presented in association with Sherman Theatre and will go on to visit partner schools and theatres across England with full venue details to be announced later this Autumn.
Edited by Associate Director of the Unicorn Theatre, Robin Belfield, this condensed, 80-minute version of Shakespeare’s fast-moving story of mistaken identity, near misses and a brave quest for reconciliation is the perfect introduction to his work for young people and those experiencing his work for the first time.
RSC Co-Artistic Directors Daniel Evans and Tamara Harvey said: “In these four thrilling Shakespeare adaptations, brought to life by some of our most exciting contemporary artists, we encounter his mastery across the genres – one Roman, one history, one tragedy and one comedy.
From Joanna Bowman’s visceral exploration of obsessive first love to Elizabeth Freestone’s prescient study of the conditions which allow contemporary populism to thrive, each of these unique stagings reveals to us how Shakespeare continues to speak to our world now and to the innately human in all of us.
In Piranesi and Mrs Dalloway, we see a new generation grapple with a century-old theatrical pre-occupation: the exploration of inner-life on stage, giving audiences a space in which to explore the deeply human conflicts that make us who we are.
Together, they form a season that invites us to explore how inner conflict and external influences collide to shape us, how we see the world, how we show up and how we connect with one another. We look forward to sharing it with audiences.”
Public booking for newly announced productions opens on 21 October, with further info here.