New RSC season stars Simon Russell Beale, Freema Agyeman, Rose Leslie & Nick Blood
RSC season directors include Joanna Bowman, Emily Burns, Yaël Farber, Michael Longhurst, Max Webster, Daniel Evans, Sideeq Heard & Tamara Harvey
The Royal Shakespeare Company has announced its new season for summer and autumn 2025, plus a major new show this Christmas 2025/2026.
In a co-production with Chichester Festival Theatre, the RSC will stage a new production of Roald Dahl’s much-loved children’s storyThe BFG, adapted by Tom Wells and directed by RSC Co-Artistic Director Daniel Evans in his directorial debut for the RSC.
Also announced are five new Shakespeare productions, directed by Joanna Bowman, Emily Burns, Yaël Farber, Michael Longhurst and Max Webster.
There will also be a new version of W. Somerset Maugham’s play The Constant Wife, reuniting Olivier Award-winning playwright Laura Wade with RSC Co-Artistic Director Tamara Harvey.
The RSC will also stage the European premiere of Fat Ham by Pulitzer Prize-winner James Ijames, and run tours of Rupert Goold’s new production of Hamlet, and First Encounters: King Lear.
RSC Season Trailer
In the RSC’s Royal Shakespeare Theatre, the programme includes:
Much Ado About Nothing
Director Michael Longhurst (Second Best, Next to Normal), former artistic director of the Donmar Warehouse, stages a new production of Shakespeare’s Much Ado About Nothing (12 April – 24 May 2025), set against the glossy world of professional football. The production will star Freema Agyeman as Beatrice and Nick Blood as Benedick.
The creative team also includes Set and Costume Designer Jon Bausor; Lighting Designer Jack Knowles; Choreographer and Movement Director Julia Cheng; and Casting Director, Anna Cooper CDG.
Already announced is Hamlet Hail to the Thief (4 – 28 June 2025), bringing together Shakespeare’s tragedy and Radiohead’s seminal album, adapted by Christine Jones with Steven Hoggett with music by Radiohead and Orchestrations by Thom Yorke.
The full creative team includes Directors Steven Hoggett and Christine Jones, Set Designer AMP Collective featuring Sadra Tehrani; Arranger Justin Levine; Choreographer Jess Williams; Music Supervisor and Music Director Tom Brady; Sound Designer Gareth Fry; Video Designer Will Duke; Lighting Designer Jessica Hung Han Yun; Costume Designer Lisa Duncan; Dramaturg and Text Consultant Ayanna Thompson; and Casting Director Charlotte Sutton CDG.
The Winter’s Tale
Yaël Farber (King Lear, Macbeth) will make her RSC debut with a new production of Shakespeare’s The Winter’s Tale (12 July – 30 August).
The creative team also includes Set and Costume Designer Soutra Gilmour; Lighting Designer Tim Lutkin; Casting Director Julia Horan CDG; and Children’s Casting Director Charlie Metcalf.
Measure for Measure
A new staging of Shakespeare’s Measure for Measure (13 September – 25 October 2025) will be directed by Emily Burns, following her production last year of Love’s Labour’s Lost.
Joining Burns on the Creative team are Set and Costume Designer Frankie Bradshaw; Sound Designer Christopher Shutt and Casting Director Charlotte Sutton CDG.
Finally, at Christmas, the Royal Shakespeare Company, Chichester Festival Theatre and Roald Dahl Story Company production will bring Roald Dahl’s The BFG (25 November 2025 – 31 January 2026) to the stage, in a new adaptation by Tom Wells (The Kitchen Sink, Jumpers for Goalposts), directed by Daniel Evans (Quiz, South Pacific).
Also in the creative team for The BFG are Puppetry Designer and Director Toby Olié; Set Designer Vicki Mortimer; Costume Designer Kinnetia Isidore; Lighting Designer Zoe Spurr; Video Designer Akhila Krishnan; Illusions Chris Fisher; Composer Oleta Haffner; Sound Designer Carolyn Downing; Choreographer and Movement Director Ira Mandela Siobhan; Puppetry Co-Designer Daisy Beattie; Casting Christopher Worrall CDG; and Children’s Casting Director Verity Naughton CDG.
RSC season brochure 2025-2026
The RSC’s 2025 programme for the Swan Theatre includes:
Titus Andronicus
Olivier and Tony Award-winning actor Simon Russell Beale will lead the RSC’s new production of Shakespeare’s Titus Andronicus (17 April – Saturday 7 June 2025), directed by Max Webster (The Importance of Being Earnest, Macbeth).
The cast also includes Emma Fielding as Marcia Andronicus, Natey Jones as Aaron the Moor, Wendy Kweh as Tamora, and Letty Thomas.
Looking at Shakespeare’s bloodiest play through the lens of 21st century aggression, Webster is joined in the creative team by Set and Costume Designer Joanna Scotcher; Lighting Designer Tingying Dong; Composer Matthew Herbert; Sound Designer Lee Curran; Casting Director Matthew Dewsbury CDG and Children’s Casting Director Charlie Metcalf.
Rose Leslie (Game of Thrones, Downton Abbey, Vigil) stars as Constance in a new version of W. Somerset Maugham’s play The Constant Wife (20 June – 2 August 2025), adapted by Olivier Award-winning playwright Laura Wade, and directed by Tamara Harvey, who reunite following Home, I’m Darling.
W. Somerset Maugham’s subversive comedy is reimagined in a sparkling new version, which is co-produced by West End producer David Pugh.
Joining Wade and Harvey on the creative team are Set and Co-Costume Designer Anna Fleischle; Co-Costume Designer Cat Fuller; Lighting Designer Ryan Day; Sound Designer Claire Windsor; and Casting Director Charlotte Sutton CDG.
Fat Ham
Pulitzer Prize-winning play Fat Ham (15 August – 13 September 2025) by James Ijames will make its European premiere at the RSC this year, directed for the Swan Theatre by Sideeq Heard.
Fat Ham is a delectable comic tragedy, nominated for five Tony Awards including Best Play and Best Direction of a Play following its Off-Broadway premiere by The Public Theater and National Black Theatre.
Set Design is by Maruti Evans, with further creatives to be announced.
I, Peaseblossom
Award-winning writer and performer Tim Crouch presents a new adaptation of A Midsummer Night’s Dream in I, Peaseblossom (28 – 31 May 2025).
The show is written and performed by Crouch, with Original Design by Graeme Gilmour, and Music by Karl James.
In the RSC’s The Other Place, the programme includes:
4.48 Psychosis
In The Other Place, Sarah Kane’s final masterpiece 4.48 Psychosis (10 – 27 July 2025) comes to Stratford-upon-Avon following a run at the Royal Court Theatre. Directed by James Macdonald (Unicorn, Waiting for Godot), the original cast reunites 25 years on, with Daniel Evans, Jo McInnes and Madeleine Potter.
The creative team also includes Set and Costume Designer Jeremy Herbert; Lighting Designer Nigel Edwards; Sound Designer Paul Arditti; and Casting Director Lisa Makin.
The Two Gentlemen of Verona
Joanna Bowman directs a new 80-minute version of Shakespeare’s The Two Gentlemen of Verona (4 – 31 August 2025).
In touring news, the RSC’s new production of Hamlet directed by Rupert Goold (Dear England, Tammy Faye), will tour in 2026, visiting Truro, Bradford, Norwich, Nottingham, Blackpool, Newcastle, York, and Canterbury.
Hamlet stars Starring Luke Thallon as Hamlet, Nancy Carroll as Gertrude, Jared Harris as Claudius, Anton Lesser as Ghost/First Player, Elliot Levey as Polonius, Kel Matsena as Horatio, Lewis Shepherd as Laertes, and Nia Towle as Ophelia, and is playing in Stratford-upon-Avon from 8 February to 29 March 2025.
Tamara Harvey and Daniel Evans said in a statement: “Over the last twelve months, our guiding principle as Co-Artistic Directors has been to seek out the most exciting directors, writers and actors working in the UK and internationally, and ask them which stories they feel a passionate desire to tell. Our 2025/26 season will bring together an international roster of creative talent, where the works of William Shakespeare stand shoulder to shoulder with some of the most compelling voices in modern playwriting, from Olivier Award-winning playwright Laura Wade to the late, great Sarah Kane and the Pulitzer Prize-winning James Ijames. And then there’s Roald Dahl, one of our greatest storytellers and children’s authors, whose 1982 novel The BFG will be the inspiration for our magical festive family show in 2025, newly adapted for the stage by Tom Wells. Alongside five new productions from the pen of our house playwright, directed by Joanna Bowman, Emily Burns, Yaël Farber, Michael Longhurst and Max Webster, we will also celebrate the diverse ways in which Shakespeare’s characters and stories continue to prove fertile ground for re-invention and re-discovery, with the world premiere of Hamlet Hail to the Thief, a frenetic distillation of the Hamlet story, set alongside the soundtrack of Radiohead’s seminal album, and the European premiere of James Ijames’ tragi-comic family drama, Fat Ham. We’re even taking our first foray into the world of gaming with Lili, a powerful, contemporary reimagining of Shakespeare’s Macbeth set in modern Iran, currently in development for 2026.”
Related News
Full cast announced for Jonathan Groff-led, all male company of As You Like It at the RSC
Sharon D Clarke postpones RSC’s Othello to undergo cancer treatment
15 famous actors to catch on the London stage this summer
RSC announces the full cast for upcoming stage adaptation of George Elliot’s Middlemarch
Latest News
Broadway legend Patti LuPone returns to the London Coliseum for Valentine’s Day 2027
Helen of Troy never got to tell her side. Watch the trailer for the play that does
After a sell-out world tour, The Choir of Man returns to the West End this Christmas
