RSC All New Seasons

As someone who was part of an amateur community group that was picked to be the 'community' group to be in the touring Midsummer Night's Dream around 5 or 6 years ago, here's my comments.

At the time it was exciting that a group of our members (not me!) were part of this. They got video direction from EW and I think went to Stratford a couple of times to rehearse (and to then perform). It got local BBC press coverage and the group used it in promotion. Other than that? Nothing. No links continued with the RSC (even though our group predominantly does 1 big Shakespeare a Year), no continuation of anything with the RSC. It was a tick box exercise really, that's how it felt.

I quite like the look of the directors they are using but only if they follow through and give the successful ones 1-2 productions a year for the next few years - Doran never did that, in fact the successful ones sometimes waited years to be invited back.

I think from his perspective nothing went wrong, he did exactly what he wanted and intended to do. The problem was the RSC hierarchy didn't actually listen to him and thought he was the continuity candidate rather than someone who was about to entirely change the ethos and priorities of the RSC. I mean he literally said right at the start he was de-emphasising the company aspect of the RSC and that's exactly what he did. 

Doran's big project was staging a cycle of all the Shakespeare plays in the RST. This ran 2013-2022 (9 years) until he said it was complete (it wasn't, he missed out plays and not all were staged in the RST). Here are the directors he used during that cycle and the number of plays each directed.


Greg Doran 12

Erica Whyman 3

Christopher Luscombe 3

Simon Godwin 3

Polly Findlay 2

Blanche McIntyre 2

Iqbal Khan 2

Angus Jackson 2

Eleanor Rhode 1

Phillip Breen 1

Fiona Laird 1

Melly Still 1

Justin Audibert 1

Kimberley Sykes 1


Owen Horsely directed a couple in collaboration with Doran. 

This is not what a "company" project should look like. Apart from Doran no director directed more than once every three years on average - that's no way to build continuity. Simon Godwin and Christopher Luscombe directed very successful plays early in the cycle and then waited years to direct again - as a result Godwin directed more Shakespeare for the NT during the cycle than at the RSC. I was surprised to see Maria Aberg who was a successful director from the period prior to Doran's tenure didn't direct at all in this cycle (though she and others directed plays in the Swan). 

Hard not to conclude that Doran's programming was purely to suit himself and his own personal goals rather than for the good of the wider company. He picked the plays he wanted, as did EW, then they just filled in with freelances for everything else with none of them able to rely purely on the RSC for their income. 

From the pictures they've more or less gutted the Swan. The new supporting framework to support the rigs is the main thing (which means the roof won't collapse if people use the Ashcroft room above it). But we're also getting new indiviual seats and a bunch of ther accessibility changes. We're all encouraged to spend £300-£3000 to get our names on one of those individual seats (think I'll pass). Curiously the world premiere line says it's in the footsteps of previous "bold productions" including some that didn't sell at all well (that should have been in TOP instead of the Swan anyway).

Hmm, the entire run of the RSC's spring/summer production of Hamnet is showing as completely sold out, which seems unusual for a new play with no cast announced, several months before it opens. Trying to debate whether to book the rest of my spring trip and hope tickets become available later on, what do people think? Is it really fully sold out, or some other reason it's showing as sold out?

How weird - I just looked and indeed all sold out except for 29th April which said 'low availability' but when you actually click on that date, it too seems to be sold out. Could there have been huge group bookings? The book was popular, but still...

I'd be amazed if there wasn't.

Sounds great. What a shame it isn't transferring to London.

It's so disappointing to see the Swan turned into the Royal Court. Part of the RSC's job is reviving plays and writers which would otherwise disappear from our cultural lives. And are disappearing right now: when was the last time play by Jonson or Kyd was performed professionally?

If they see their job as to problematise history and decolonise our cultural heritage, then they will quickly get to the point where they can't justify giving this huge prominence to 'great white men' like Shakespeare. What then? If you're programming for the Royal Shakespeare Company you just have to suck it up and accept that this company is based around that culture. By all means explore those political themes via the canonical plays, and do some new plays that complement their repertoire, but that canon is literally their whole reason for existing.

www.theguardian.com/stage/2023/feb/21/fresh-take-on-shakespeare-explores-antisemitism-via-1930s-cable-street

Merchant of Venice 1936 with Tracy Ann Oberman as Shylock; Tanika Gupta's The Empress, a GCSE set text; new play about the Falklands and how the invasion and war affected its inhabitants and Cowbois, a 'rollicking queer cowboy show.'

lyric.co.uk/shows/the-empress/

Empress transfer to the Lyric for October 2023