The Royal Shakespeare Company’s Rome MMXVII Season of four Shakespeare plays will transfer to the Barbican Theatre from 6 November, straight from their run in Stratford-upon-Avon: Coriolanus (6 November – 18 November 2017), Julius Caesar (24 November 2017 – 20 January 2018), Antony & Cleopatra (30 November 2017 – 20 January 2018) and Titus Andronicus (7 December 2017 – 19 January 2018).
Angus Jackson, who previously directed the sell-out RSC productions of Oppenheimer and Don Quixote is Season Director for Rome MMXVII, and directs Sope Dirisu in the title role in Coriolanus and Andrew Woodall as Julius Caesar in the play of the same name. Anthony & Cleopatra starring Josette Simon and Antony Byrne is directed by Iqbal Khan while Blanche McIntyre directs Titus Andronicus, Shakespeare’s bloodiest play. All four plays share a scenic aesthetic, designed by Robert Innes Hopkins.
Angus Jackson has decided to “present these plays not in the order that they were written but in the order that the stories happen. Beginning with Coriolanus – a semi-fictional character from 500 BCE – through to Julius Caesar and Antony & Cleopatra, legendary characters who lived just before the birth of Christ. And finally, Titus Andronicus, in which we see an entirely imagined Rome at the end of its dominance. In this order, we track the ascendance and the decline of a civilisation: the establishment of a Republic in the aftermath of the abolition of a monarchy, the Republic becoming an Empire and ultimately destroying itself.”
In addition to the plays of the Rome season, the RSC’s current exhibition of political cartoons – Draw New Mischief – will be displayed on the Mezzanine floor at the Barbican Centre between 3 November 2017 – 21 January 2017. These new cartoons will be exhibited throughout the season’s run, and include works from: Steve Bell, one of the Guardian’s chief cartoonists, Christian Adams, a political cartoonist at the Daily Telegraph, Ann Telnaes, a political cartoonist at the Washington Post, Victor Ndula, a political cartoonist for the Kenyan national newspaper and Lorna Miller, a political cartoonist whose work has appeared in Private Eye and the Morning Star.
Tickets for the Rome MMXVII Season can be purchased from The Barbican website.