The Royal Shakespeare Company, Ivo Van Hove’s Toneelgroep Amsterdam and Malthouse Theatre will all bring Shakespearean productions to the Barbican Centre.
Benedict Cumberbatch’s Hamlet, which runs at the theatre from August to October sets the tone for much of the rest of this year and next at the Barbican.
From November to January, the RSC brings Richard II and Henry IV Pt I and Pt II back to the Barbican along with its new production of Henry V, which, prior to its London transfer, opens in Stratford-upon-Avon this autumn.
Where autumn 2015 leads, spring 2016 follows, as Dutch company Toneelgroep Amsterdam returns to the Barbican to stage its own collection of the Bard’s histories. Kings Of War, which runs at the end of April 2016, brings Henry V, Henry VI and Richard III together in one explosive play, casting the monarchs as modern day political leaders.
Summer 2016 too boasts a reimagined Shakespeare, as Malthouse Theatre presents the King Lear-inspired The Shadow King. This Australia-set version casts Lear as the head of a remote mining community at war over mining rights and inheritance.
Bringing a less Bardic tale to the Barbican, Complicite heads back to the east London venue in February 2016 to present The Encounter. The one-man show starring Simon McBurney uses innovative technology to help tell the story of a photographer who plunged deep into the heart of the Amazon.
Another returning company, Told By An Idiot pops back to the Barbican for Christmas to stage another season of hit family show Get Happy.
A host of other performances were also announced by the Barbican today, among them the CASA Latin American Theatre Festival, Karen Finley’s Written In Sand, Oxford Samuel Beckett Theatre Trust Award winners Nigel Barrett and Louise Mari, and the previously announced The Dark Mirror – Zender’s Winterreise.