IMAGE CREDITS IN ORDER OF APPEARANCE: David Tennant in Richard II by Kwame Lestrade. Shakespeare’s 450th Birthday Fireworks by Lucy Barriball. The cast of As You Like It by Keith Pattison. The cast of Richard II by Kwame Lestrade. Technical rehearsal for Live From Stratford-upon-Avon by Lucy Barriball. Lydia Leonard in Bring Up the Bodies by Keith Pattison. Camille O’Sullivan in The Rape of Lucrece by Keith Pattison. Anjana Vasan talking to students at First Encounter: The Taming of the Shrew tour by Simon Annand. Matilda Write Here Write Now by Manuel Harlan. Sam Swann and Charlotte Mills in Wendy & Peter Pan by Manuel Harlan. Audience member streaming A Midsummer Night’s Dreaming by Kwame Lestrade. The cast of The Empress by Steve Tanner. ROYAL SHAKESPEARE COMPANY Greg Hicks and Joanna Horton in All’s Well That Ends Well WATERSIDE by Ellie Kurttz. Ellie Beaven in STRATFORD-UPON-AVON A Mad World My Masters WARWICKSHIRE by Manuel Harlan. Jo Stone-Fewings in The Winter’s Tale CV37 6BB by Sheila Burnett. egistered Charity No. 212481 Audience members R applauding Candide by Sasha Gusov. Income and Expenditure: Matilda The Musical +44 (0)1789 296655 by Manuel Harlan. The cast of Candide www.rsc.org.uk by Manuel Harlan. EDITORIAL Find us on Facebook Review compiled and www.facebook.com/theRSC edited by Jane Ellis. DESIGN Follow us on Twitter Designed by Graham Rolfe, www.twitter.com/theRSC RSC Visual Communications. We have had a great year, bringing the very best in live theatre to audiences across the world. We staged almost 2000 thrilling performances of 22 productions for more than 1.7m ticket buyers, winning awards, critical acclaim and a hugely positive audience response. We welcomed more than a million visitors to our Stratford-upon-Avon home, maintained a year-round presence in the West End and on Broadway, and toured productions for 48 weeks in the UK and internationally. We also inspired new generations of young people and theatre-goers with a rich programme of events, exhibitions and educational activity. And we collaborated with hundreds of amateur and professional theatre artists, inviting them to share skills and expertise with us. This was a particularly special year as it marked the 450th anniversary of Shakespeare’s birth and the launch of Shakespeare Nation, our commitment to stage all 36 plays in the First Folio without repeats over the next six years. We began the journey with Richard II, and were delighted to win the biggest single audience ever for a Shakespeare performance when we broadcast the production live into cinemas. We celebrated the Swan Theatre as the home of Shakespeare’s contemporaries and a place for adventurous new writing, with acclaimed dramatisations of Hilary Mantel’s prize-winning novels, Wolf Hall and Bring Up the Bodies, Thomas Middleton’s A Mad World My Masters and new plays such as The Empress by Tanika Gupta. And we continued to push the boundaries of theatre and performance, exploring how Shakespeare might approach theatre in a digital age in an experimental collaboration with Google+. We are proud to make theatre at its best for people everywhere. As we prepare to celebrate the next Shakespeare jubilee in 2016 and make Stratford the destination for the celebrations, we thank everyone who continues to support this great Company. ‘ ’ FRESH, FUNNY, SEXY... DEEPLY TOUCHING TELEGRAPH The cast of As You Like It. ‘One of the best things I’ve ever seen. Everything about it was wonderful.’ AUDIENCE MEMBER Our journey to perform Shakespeare’s entire First Folio, without repeats, on the Royal Shakespeare Theatre stage began with Gregory Doran’s acclaimed production of Richard II. David Tennant played the title role in the first production of all 36 plays to be performed just once over the next six years. Following its season in Stratford-upon-Avon Richard II transferred to London for a sell-out run, marking the start of a new relationship with the Barbican. THE RSC ENSEMBLE IS GENEROUSLY SUPPORTED BY THE GATSBY CHARITABLE FOUNDATION AND THE KOVNER FOUNDATION ‘...as I looked around Audience member via Twitter Just seen #RSCRichardII in Wimbledon. Packed. Brilliant and at all the wide eyed, my 2 under 16s are now converted. Great eve. Great cast. little faces looking up toward the screen, I thought I was going to cry – it gave our kids the opportunity to see the RSC for the first time in their lives – something which I thought would never be possible. As one child said, ‘Miss, is this for real?’ TEACHER, ST SAVIOURS SCHOOL, BOLTON Over 100,000 people came together in cinemas around the world to watch Richard II – the largest audience ever for a single performance of Shakespeare. This marked the start of our ’Live from Stratford-upon-Avon’ broadcasts. We also became the first theatre company to stream productions, for free, directly into UK schools. 31,000 young people in 400 schools watched Richard II in their classrooms and joined a live Q&A with David Tennant and Gregory Doran. LIVE FROM STRATFORD-UPON-AVON IS GENEROUSLY SUPPORTED BY CHK CHARITIES LIMITED, SIDNEY E FRANK FOUNDATION AND THE GREAT BRITAIN SASAKAWA FOUNDATION Audience member via Twitter What an incredible few hours...funny, dark, beautiful ‘The RSC has the highest and relentless. High expectations utterly surpassed. international reputation. They don’t just present plays live, but ‘super-live’. It has the know-how, the experience, the knowledge in depth and the expertise to handle a project like this. It’s a dream come true for me to see the RSC present my plays. I know that is a phrase people use, but I don’t say it lightly.’ HILARY MANTEL Our Swan Theatre was home to the highly anticipated dramatisations of Hilary Mantel’s Wolf Hall and Bring Up the Bodies. Adapted by Mike Poulton, the shows sold out in Stratford-upon-Avon and became two of our fastest ever selling London transfers, produced with Playful Productions. They performed at the Aldwych Theatre for an extended season to Lydia Leonard and Ben Miles in huge critical and audience acclaim. A Broadway Bring Up the Bodies. opening is planned for 2015. THE RSC LITERARY DEPARTMENT IS GENEROUSLY SUPPORTED BY THE DRUE HEINZ TRUST Camille O’Sullivan in The Rape of Lucrece. ‘A TRIUMPH... STRANGE, GRIPPING AND HONEST’ RSC productions toured 20 UK cities and 5 countries THE TIMES in one of our busiest years of touring. The Rape of Lucrece originated from the RSC Studio which is designed to support artists in the early development of new work. Over the last two years the production has grown into an award-winning success. Performed by Camille O’Sullivan with Feargal Murray on piano, the show continued its travels during one of our busiest touring years ever with 13 productions on the road. So far The Rape of Lucrece has been seen in Edinburgh, Sydney, Melbourne, Poland, Brazil, Dublin, Cork, Derry/Londonderry, The Hague, Stratford-upon-Avon and London. ‘An excellent resource RSC Education transformed young people’s experiences that I will use many of Shakespeare in the classroom and in performance, times and recommend to particularly in areas with least access to our work. every teacher I know!’ TEACHER Over 16,500 primary schools received a copy of the RSC Shakespeare Toolkit for Teachers thanks to a grant from the Department for Education. This means that every state-funded school now has a copy of our Toolkit and we have received brilliant feedback. Our First Encounter: The Taming of the Shrew represents a long-term commitment to working with communities across the country. Over 17,000 people saw one of the 60 performances in one of our Learning and Performance Network partner theatres or schools. THE LEARNING AND PERFORMANCE NETWORK IS SUPPORTED BY THE PAUL HAMLYN FOUNDATION AND THE ANDREW LLOYD WEBBER FOUNDATION Anjana Vasan talking to students following a WORKSHOPS, CONFERENCES AND PROFESSIONAL DEVELOPMENT COURSES FOR STUDENTS performance of The Taming of the Shrew in their school. AND TEACHERS ARE GENEROUSLY SUPPORTED BY THE CLORE DUFFIELD FOUNDATION ‘...there was no dumbing down or lowering of standards for the young people. They must have gone away from the theatre thrilled and inspired. Such a moment can prove critical in young people’s lives’ ‘WRITE HERE WRITE NOW WITH MATILDA’ SUPPORTER Our free online schools’ resource, ‘Write Here Write Now with Matilda’, was created to give children the confidence and skills to become creative writers and avid readers, using advice from the show’s THE WORLD AROUND ART GREAT creators, Dennis Kelly and Tim Minchin. Our National Writing Challenge invited students aged 8 to 13 to devise an original script or song inspired by Matilda The Musical. Young people from eight schools joined us to see their work performed live in a special performance by the cast at London’s Cambridge Theatre with each student writer The cast of receiving a commemorative ‘maggot’ medal. Matilda The Musical with one of the THANK YOU TO THE INDIVIDUAL SUPPORTERS WHO DONATED TO ‘WRITE HERE WRITE NOW WITH MATILDA‘ students. Sam Swann and Charlotte Mills in Wendy & Peter Pan. ‘ The show had all the hallmarks of quality I expect from the RSC. Superb…this show confirmed that the RSC is probably the finest theatre company in the UK and probably the world!’ AUDIENCE MEMBER We staged a ‘relaxed’ performance of our world premiere of Ella Hickson’s Wendy & Peter Pan, a new adaptation of JM Barrie’s popular children’s classic. The performance was specially designed for those with autism and learning difficulties, with a relaxed attitude to noise and movement, small changes made to the light and sound effects, and chill out zones to visit during the performance.