#rsc

@thersc From Beyoncé to The Beatles, Jonathan Groff and Daniel Evans create a playlist that encapsulates the essence and vibe of As You Like It 🩷

Directed by Co-Artistic Director Daniel Evans with Tony Award-winning Jonathan Groff as Rosalind, As You Like It comes to the Royal Shakespeare Theatre this autumn — don't miss it

They have completely refigured the RSC’s main theatre for this, which has been a HUGE undertaking. There is now a cross shaped stage with 4 big doors for entrances and exits. There’s also a huge metal looking arch which has different moving parts in it that open to expand the set. The engineering and planning that have gone into this is amazing. Sadly I think it’s also why it will make it very difficult to see the production tour but there are a few venues in London I can think of that could manage to stage it. It is being filmed but usually the RSC filming is for archive purposes only not to be released as a pro shot.

We have been asked not to talk about the plot so as to avoid spoilers and no photos are allowed in the theatre but opening night was on Saturday and they’ve finally released some production shots that give some idea of the scale and quality of the production. I’ll link to the RSC’s insta post later.

Because of the staging every seat gets a unique view. If you’re front 3 rows of the stalls you’re at stage level and looking up but you’re so close to the action that you’re practically involved. They’ve angled a lot do seats so that the seating is pretty much in the round. And they’ve added seats at what is usually the stage end. I don’t know how good the view is from some of these when the iron throne is on stage though as it’s MASSIVE.

The casting is fantastic. The Dorne characters are Black! Hurray! Why couldn’t they to series have done that (I know). The Starks are so well cast that they look like a family. I’ve seen Michael Abubakar (Ned Stark) in Macbeth at the RSC and Harmony Rose-Bremner (Luanda Stark) in the Years and both were excellent again. This isn’t a star studded cast but everyone is so good. Callum Woodhouse as Robert Baratheon and Mariah Gale as the queen are both standouts.

The costumes are amazing. The textiles are STUNNING. The white cloaks have amazing quilting(?) patterns embossed into them as does Robert’s tunic. The construction of the armour is really thoughtful and whilst it’s mostly plastic it looks great. The royal outfits are sumptuous and highly decorated. It’s just beautiful and if nothing else I hope the costumes go on display after the production ends.

And then there’s the puppetry. My son had seen War Horse the previous week so you may think that he’d be over seeing full sized horse puppets with people riding them but no, he was excitedly telling me the differences between them and what worked so well in the different productions. Here we have jousting. On life sized horse puppets. It’s very clever. I’m not going to go into too much detail about how they do but it’s very thoughtful about actors and puppeteers safety but also visually effective.

There are lots of fights. Some are stagecraft sword fights. Some are highly stylised. All are thrilling. They use cut lighting (cut to dark whilst the actors move into a new position) a lot, which I was very grateful for as they could easily have gone with strobe lighting in those scenes and that would have been very uncomfortable for me.

My one criticism of the story is that it’s restricted in how the characters can grow and progress because they have to get to specific points. But I guess that’s what fan fiction is for. If you know the books/tv you know what’s coming. If you don’t, like my son, then the story still works.

It’s an amazingly ballsy production that gripped from the opening scene all the way through its 3hr 40 run time. The run is currently sold out but returns do show up so if you can make it to Stratford upon Avon then keep and eye on the box office for tickets. I booked two shows and both of us are desperate to see it again.

La Royal Shakespeare Company a dévoilé samedi la distribution complète et le premier portrait officiel de sa nouvelle création théâtrale, Game of Thrones : Le Roi fou. Ce spectacle préquelle, annoncé en février, investira le Royal Shakespeare Theatre de Stratford-upon-Avon du 8 août au 5 septembre 2026. Une annonce qui coïncide avec le trentième anniversaire de la publication d'A Game of Thrones,…

It’s a pleasure this week to welcome Daniel Evans, Co-Artistic Director of the Royal Shakespeare Company, to The Sondheim Hub. Daniel is as steeped in Sondheim as he is in Shakespeare, winning Olivier Awards for his performances in Merrily We Roll Along and Sunday in the Park with George. As he prepares to direct Jonathan Groff in As You Like It at the RSC, we spoke about meeting Sondheim, finding his own George, what Sondheim and Shakespeare understand about form and meaning, and much more.

Evans: … I went to see Jonathan Groff in Merrily on Broadway, and saw Daniel Radcliffe playing the part I’d played — and that was surreal, because you’re seeing what’s in front of you and you’re also remembering your own experience. That makes for such a rich viewing.

You mentioned As You Like It, which opens at the RSC in September. I think there’s something really nice, by the way, about a Charley directing a Frank.

Ha!

Where are you in the creative process right now?

I’ve been wanting to do this production for a while, because it’s a play about a woman who dresses up as a man who pretends to be a woman — and of course it was originally done with all men, because women weren’t allowed on the English stage in the very late 16th century. This is a play from 1599. I’d been thinking about who Rosalind is, and I hadn’t quite found her until I saw Just in Time. I’d seen Jonathan in Merrily the year before, but there was something he did in Just in Time… It’s a show about Bobby Darin, and it was a complete and utter triumph for Jonathan. He rarely left the stage, he had this connection with the audience, he could turn on a dime so quickly. It seemed to me like his intellect and his technique are so together.

I’d actually met him after the show, but I didn’t mention anything because I was too shy. So I wrote to him about three days later and said, “This is a mad idea...” And he literally wrote back with the subject line reading, “Holy fucking shit.” So we Zoomed three days later, and he said yes. And since then, every Friday, we go through the play, we do Shakespeare, and we’ve done that for the last six months without fail. He’s always there. He’s a theatre actor through and through, even though he’s doing two films at the moment, back to back — the one with Lin-Manuel, and the one with Dan Radcliffe. But he gets it, and he’s curious, and he’s passionate, and he has deep insight into the emotional lives of characters and plays.

The theme I’m loving exploring in the play is that there are all different kinds of love. People identify in all kinds of different ways in the play, but there’s a sort of subliminal message that says: we change. We’re not the same people throughout life. Things come in. We sometimes surprise ourselves with who we fall in love with. And whether you’re gay or straight or bi, or however you identify, you go for it. That’s all well and good. And if that’s important to you, say so. But there’s this other, greater thing, which is love, and we can’t predict where love goes. And that, I hope, is the joy this production will bring this autumn.

And that feels as Sondheimian as it does Shakespearean, doesn’t it?

Director and RSC Co-Artistic Director Daniel Evans and Tony Award-winner Jonathan Groff talk all things As You Like It. From remembering first experiences of Shakespeare, to how to pronounce 'Avon' and ramming goats!... Intrigued?