As You Like ItVenue: Royal Shakespeare Theatre, Stratford-upon-AvonBooking: Sept 26 – Nov 7
Though it has been done in the past – most memorably in an acclaimed Cheek by Jowl touring production – an all-male As You Like It is a first for the RSC. It’s a bold move given the need for opportunities for actresses but in the right hands it can be artistically valid and entertaining. With Daniel Evans directing, the omens are good and in another first, American stage star Jonathan Groff (also Kristoff in Disney’s Frozen) is making his RSC debut as Rosalind. Banished from court, she flees to the Forest of Arden, disguising herself as the youth Ganymede; there she encounters the object of her desire Orlando and the gender-bending escalates as she tutors him in love. Richard McCabe plays Jaques, with Fisayo Akinade (Heartstopper) as Celia.
Tickets: rsc.org.uk
MiddlemarchVenue: RSC Swan Theatre, Stratford-upon-AvonBooking: Oct 1- Jan 16
Nina Raine adapts George Eliot’s era-defining Victorian masterpiece for the RSC Swan Theatre in a bold two-part production directed by Jeremy Herrin. Set in a fictionalised version of the author’s Warwickshire, the story follows the intersecting lives of Middlemarch residents as social progress collides with tradition – from the idealistic Dorothea Brooke and ambitious doctor Tertius Lydgate to pragmatic Mary Garth and corrupt banker Nicholas Bulstrode. Raine’s adaptation promises to bring Eliot herself into the action as narrator, confidante and counsellor.
Tickets: rsc.org.uk
Our Friends in the NorthVenue: Newcastle Theatre RoyalBooking: Oct 15-24
The BAFTA-winning 1996 TV phenomenon returns to Newcastle, the city where it’s set, in a new stage adaptation by the series’ original creator Peter Flannery, with Jack McNamara, artistic director at local playwriting powerhouse Live. The focus of this fresh theatrical version is two episodes in which Nicky, Mary, Tosker and Geordie (played in the series by Christopher Eccleston, Gina McKee, Mark Strong and Daniel Craig) come of age in the city during the turbulent early Thatcher years (1979-1984).
Tickets: theatreroyal.co.uk
Owain & HenryVenue: Donald Gordon Theatre, Wales Millennium Centre, CardiffBooking: Nov 5-28
Michael Sheen, artistic director of the newly formed Welsh National Theatre, delivers his follow-up to Our Town, starring as Owain Glyndwr alongside Linus Roache as Henry IV (and Ned Costello as Hal) in Gary Owen’s new epic play about a defining conflict in Wales: Glyndwr’s rebellion against England (1400 – c1416). Directed by Sheen and Steffan Donnelly on the second largest stage in Europe, this co-production with Wales Millennium Centre offers a mighty clash between visions of nationhood.
Tickets: wmc.org.uk
DonaldVenue: Theatre Royal BathBooking: Nov 6- Dec 5
After tracing the evolution of the American financial system up until the 2008 crash in his award-laden The Lehman Trilogy, Italian actor-playwright Stefano Massini focuses on another backstory that speaks to today. He performed his serio-comic portrait of Donald Trump as an acclaimed touring solo last year in Italy; now in an expanded English version by veteran comedy director Sean Foley, Elliot Cowan portrays Trump and his irresistible rise via golf courses, hotels and The Apprentice. It’s in the Ustinov studio, but could go far and wide; and the work forms part of a power trilogy set to look at Putin, then Xi Jinping.
Tickets: theatreroyal.org.uk