The RSC announces full details of its Spring 2026 season, which sees multi award-winning actor and filmmaker Kenneth Branagh make a return to Stratford-upon-Avon for the first time in over 30 years, alongside Academy Award-winning actress Helen Hunt and double Olivier Award-winning actor Mark Gatiss in their RSC debuts.
The season features five productions, including a landmark staging of Shakespeare’s late masterpiece, two European classics urgently retold for today, an innovative new co-production with the UK’s leading theatre for young audiences, and an award-nominated debut play. The programme brings together globally renowned and emerging talents to tell stories that speak directly to our world now, united in their exploration of what bonds individuals to home, family and country.
Marking his historic return to the company in two productions running across Summer 2026, Kenneth Branagh plays Prospero in an epic new staging of William Shakespeare’s The Tempest directed by Sir Richard Eyre, and Lopakhin alongside Academy award-winning actress Helen Hunt as Madame Ranyevskaya in a new version of Anton Chekhov’s The Cherry Orchard by Laura Wade directed by Tamara Harvey.
The Tempest plays from Wednesday 13 May – Saturday 20 June in the Royal Shakespeare Theatre, with press night on Tuesday 26 May. The production sees Kenneth Branagh take up the role of Prospero for the first time, having worked on thirty-five productions of Shakespeare across his career. The Tempest also marks Sir Richard Eyre’s first time directing in Stratford-upon-Avon following an esteemed career as a director, writer and former Artistic Director of the National Theatre between 1988-1997.
Written on the brink of the Russian Revolution, Anton Chekhov’s The Cherry Orchard opens in The Swan Theatre, Stratford-upon-Avon from Friday 10 July – Saturday 29 August, with press night on Tuesday 21 July. This new version of Chekhov’s final play by Olivier Award-winning playwright Laura Wade (Posh, The Riot Club, Rivals) sees Wade re-united with RSC Co-Artistic Director Tamara Harvey following their critically acclaimed production of The Constant Wife which premiered in the Swan Theatre in June this year. The production marks Helen Hunt’s debut with the company and follows a distinguished career spanning film, television, and theatre, as both actress, writer, director and producer.
Also making his debut with the Company in 2026, double Olivier Award-winning actor and writer Mark Gatiss takes on the title role of gangster Arturo Ui in Bertolt Brecht’s biting political satire on Hitler’s ascent to power. This new production of The Resistible Rise of Arturo Ui, in a version by Stephen Sharkey, is directed by Seán Linnen, in his debut for the company. The production will play in the Swan Theatre from Saturday 11 April – Saturday 30 May, with press night on Tuesday 21 April, marking another historic first for the Company, as the only staging of the play in the RSC’s history.
In The Other Place, Martina Laird (RSC Coriolanus and The New Real, BBC Casualty) makes her playwrighting debut with Driftwood, shortlisted for the 2024 Verity Bargate Award. This deeply evocative story of self-determination, family and belonging is set against the backdrop of colonial Trinidad on the edge of political independence. Directed by Chichester Festival Theatre’s Artistic Director Justin Audibert, the production has its world premiere in The Other Place from Friday 17 April – Saturday 30 May with press night on Tuesday 28 April, after which it will transfer directly to Kiln Theatre from Wednesday 3 June to Saturday 4 July.
Also in The Other Place, the Unicorn Theatre’s Artistic Director Rachel Bagshaw directs a riotous re-telling of William Shakespeare’s A Midsummer Night’s Dream in a new co-production between the RSC and the Unicorn. Edited by Robin Belfield and created for children and families, the previously announced production will run from Saturday 21 March to Sunday 3 May at the Unicorn, London, before playing in The Other Place, Stratford-upon-Avon from Friday 19 June – Sunday 30 August.
Co-Artistic Directors Tamara Harvey and Daniel Evans said,
“When we set out as the Co-Artistic Directors of the Royal Shakespeare Company, we were united by a belief in the RSC as a home for radical and resonant theatre – inspired by Shakespeare and made by the most exciting artists from across the globe. Two years after our arrival, that commitment remains at the heart of everything we do.
From Shakespeare’s late meditation on freedom and forgiveness to Anton Chekhov’s prescient final play, by way of Bertolt Brecht’s searing satire on the rise of fascism, our relationship to family, community and state is bought sharply into focus on stage in 2026. We know that the stories we choose to tell as artists play a vital role in bringing people together, building connections and deepening our understanding of one another. In an increasingly volatile world, this matters to us more than ever.
We look forward to welcoming a new generation of artists and audiences to the RSC in 2026 and beyond.”
Completing the announcement and building on the company’s programming for young audiences and families, Ready Steady Colour’s Christmas Feast visits The Other Place from Wednesday 10 December 2025 – Saturday 3 January 2026 with a fun-filled serving of creativity, comedy and music suitable for ages 3+. This 55-minute festive experience by A Line Art invites children and adults to take a seat at a make-believe Christmas restaurant, in an interactive, live experience where audiences of all ages become artists of a festive mealtime with a twist.
Priority booking for Members and Supporters opens from Monday 22 September at 10am with public booking from Wednesday 8 October at 10am.
The five productions join the previously announced Measure for Measure directed by Emily Burns, Cyrano De Bergerac by Simon Evans and Debris Stephenson, featuring Adrian Lester in the title role, Macbeth featuring Sam Heughan and Lia Williams, the world stage premiere of new musical, The Boy Who Harnessed The Wind, The Forsyte Saga Parts 1 & 2, Whitney White’s All Is But Fantasy, Henry V directed by RSC Co-Artistic Director Tamara Harvey and featuring Alfred Enoch, and the world premiere of Tom Wells’ adaptation of The BFG in a co-production with Chichester Festival Theatre and the Roald Dahl Story Company, directed by RSC Co-Artistic Director, Daniel Evans.
Also announced this week, the Royal Shakespeare Company’s smash hit production of Matilda The Musical, based on Roald Dahl’s beloved book, will visit Dublin’s Bord Gáis Energy Theatre and Glasgow Theatre Royal as part of a 15 date UK and Ireland tour, opening at the Curve, Leicester on 6 October 2025. The production, which this year celebrates its 15th anniversary, will go on to visit Bradford, Liverpool, Plymouth, Sunderland, Edinburgh, Manchester, Southampton, Bristol, Birmingham, Norwich, Dublin, Milton Keynes, Glasgow and Cardiff where it will run over Christmas until 17 January 2027.
