RSC set to woo tourists with shorter Shakespeare plays

THE Royal Shakespeare Company is to stage “compact” plays in an attempt to woo tourists who do not have time for a full-length production.

This summer, there will be an outdoor production of As You Like It lasting 80 minutes and with tickets costing £20. It will be staged in the open air at Stratford-upon-avon and is designed to appeal to day-trippers who might not consider sitting through the full-length Shakespearian performance.

The slimmed-down performances are the brainchild of the RSC’S new co-artistic directors, Daniel Evans and Tamara Harvey, who have unveiled their inaugural season.

“This is an opportunity for us to make sure those people who come to Stratford just for the day, and maybe don’t have time to sit in the theatre for twoand-a-half hours, can see compact theatre that is joyful and rambunctious. This is a different kind of offer,” said Evans.

A million people go to Stratford every year but many make only a brief visit to the RSC theatre building before moving on to Shakespeare’s Birthplace or Anne Hathaway’s Cottage.

A full-length production of As You Like It in Stratford last year, starring

Geraldine James, ran to three hours. The new production, directed by Brendan O’hea, will be sponsored by Tiktok, with tickets for under-25s available for £10.

Evans and Harvey succeeded Gregory Doran in June. Evans, is an actordirector who previously ran the Chichester Festival, while Harvey was artistic director of Theatr Clwyd in Wales.

Their new season includes a production of King Lear presented in Ukrainian and without surtitles. It will be performed by Ukraine’s Uzhhorod Theatre Company and was created in collaboration with refugee communities following Russia’s invasion of Ukraine.

The cast is made up of “internally displaced people” who have been forced to flee their homes in Ukraine. There will be three performances in Stratford, with the first reserved for immigrants and refugees from the local area.

Ms Harvey said that audiences would be moved by the production even if they couldn’t understand the language. “There is something amazing that happens when language is taken away and you’re just watching the people,” she said.

Other plays in the pair’s inaugural season include a modern-day Love’s Labour’s Lost, set on a luxury island which has been bought as a retreat by an Elon Musk-style “tech bro”.