David Tennant is to return to the Royal Shakespeare Company to play Richard II in a production that will transfer from the RSC’s Stratford-upon-Avon home to London’s Barbican theatre in December.
The casting of the former Doctor Who, who now also sits on the board of the famous theatre company, was one of the headline announcements at a press briefing held today by Artistic Director Gregory Doran, who released information of his first season since taking up the position.
The production, which will open in Stratford in October before heading south for Christmas, marks Tennant’s first return to the company since his celebrated performance as Hamlet five years ago.
Speaking about Tennant’s casting, Doran said “I think it’s a challenge for him. He has no problem with verse. He breathes it. He makes it sounds as though it is completely effortless, that he is thinking it in the moment. I think the challenge for him will be to get the single quality that is least evident in the man, that sense of volatility and fragility. That psychology is more alien to David’s character and makes the play more of a challenge for him.”
Richard II will be the first production in a new cycle of Shakespeare’s History plays that Doran will direct over the coming seasons. In fact, the new head of the RSC aims to stage the entire Shakespeare canon in the Royal Shakespeare Theatre (RST) over the next five years. How many of these will transfer for London and where they will transfer to, is still the subject of much speculation.
Speaking today, Doran said: “I do believe that ultimately the RSC needs a return to a London home, and not just to transfer the Shakespeares. I think we only transfer half our work here to London. I’ve really regretted that Morte d’Arthur and Cardenio didn’t come to London and that The Orphan Of Zhao probably won’t come to London. There are plays that we have not been able to bring to London because we are not in control of our own destiny. That makes me absolutely determined that the RSC’s London home is a priority. There are lots of things we have to engage with, but to me it is absolutely vital that we do it.”
Finding the right space for such a home, however, is proving tricky, with Doran eager to find a venue that will be able to accommodate productions as created in Stratford. “I believe that what our audiences get in Stratford, our audiences in London should have as well,” he said. “We shouldn’t have to compromise every show we do… We have two spaces that are thrust stages, the Swan and the new Royal Shakespeare Theatre. To find a space which could expand occasionally the work from the Swan into a slightly bigger theatre and maybe contract the RST work into a slightly smaller theatre, but a thrust, one-room space, is absolutely the ambition.”
Though the company has two transportable courtyard theatre spaces, which it has used to stage shows at the Roundhouse and in New York, there are few West End theatres that could accommodate the productions as Doran would ideally want. A brand new, purpose built theatre would be an expensive option, though Doran confirmed that the commercial success of Matilda The Musical could make this a possibility if other partners came on board, and while tongues will wag at the company returning to its former home at the Barbican, he was quick to douse any rumours of a new partnership at this stage. “There was an awful lot of bad blood [when the RSC left the Barbican in 2002] and the way that we departed left a lot of unhappiness around,” he explained. “In a way we’re not returning. We’re going to the Barbican for a particular performance because it’s the best theatre for this show.”
Amongst the uncertainty, it was clear that although the new Artistic Director would not promise a new London home for the RSC by the 400th anniversary of Shakespeare’s death in 2016, that is his ambition.