The RSC announces full details of its spring 2026 season, which sees multi award-winning actor and filmmaker Kenneth Branagh make a return to Stratford-upon-Avon for the first time in over 30 years, alongside Academy Award-winning actress Helen Hunt and double Olivier Award-winning actor Mark Gatiss in their RSC debuts.

The season features five productions, including a landmark staging of Shakespeare’s late masterpiece, two European classics urgently retold for today, an innovative new co-production with the UK’s leading theatre for young audiences, and an award-nominated debut play. The programme brings together globally renowned and emerging talents to tell stories that speak directly to our world now, united in their exploration of what bonds individuals to home, family and country.

Marking his historic return to the company in two productions running across Summer 2026, Kenneth Branagh plays Prospero in an epic new staging of William Shakespeare’s The Tempest directed by Sir Richard Eyre, and Lopakhin alongside Academy award-winning actress Helen Hunt as Madame Ranyevskaya in a new version of Anton Chekhov’s The Cherry Orchard by Laura Wade directed by Tamara Harvey.

The Tempest plays from Wednesday 13 May – Saturday 20 June in the Royal Shakespeare Theatre. The production sees Kenneth Branagh take up the role of Prospero for the first time, having worked on thirty five productions of Shakespeare across his career. The Tempest also marks Sir Richard Eyre’s first time directing in Stratford-upon-Avon following an esteemed career as a director, writer and former Artistic Director of the National Theatre between 1988-1997.

Written on the brink of the Russian Revolution, Anton Chekhov’s The Cherry Orchard opens in The Swan Theatre, Stratford-upon-Avon from Friday 10 July – Saturday 29 August. This new version of Chekhov’s final play by Olivier Award-winning playwright Laura Wade (Posh, The Riot Club, Rivals) sees Wade re united with RSC Co-Artistic Director Tamara Harvey following their critically acclaimed production of The Constant Wife which premiered in the Swan Theatre in June this year. The production marks Helen Hunt’s debut with the company and follows a distinguished career spanning film, television, and theatre, as both actress, writer, director and producer.

Also making his debut with the Company in 2026, double Olivier Award-winning actor and writer Mark Gatiss takes on the title role of gangster Arturo Ui in Bertolt Brecht’s biting political satire on Hitler’s ascent to power. This new production of The Resistible Rise of Arturo Ui, in a version by Stephen Sharkey, is directed by Seán Linnen, in his debut for the company. The production will play in the Swan Theatre from Saturday 11 April – Saturday 30 May, marking another historic first for the Company, as the only staging of the play in the RSC’s history.

In The Other Place, Martina Laird (RSC Coriolanus and The New Real, BBC Casualty) makes her playwrighting debut with Driftwood, shortlisted for the 2024 Verity Bargate Award. This deeply evocative story of self-determination, family and belonging is set against the backdrop of colonial Trinidad on the edge of political independence. Directed by Chichester Festival Theatre’s Artistic Director Justin Audibert, the production has its world premiere in The Other Place from Friday 17 April – Saturday 30 May.

Also in The Other Place, the Unicorn Theatre’s Artistic Director Rachel Bagshaw directs a riotous re-telling  of William Shakespeare’s A Midsummer Night’s Dream in a new co-production between the RSC and the Unicorn. Edited by Robin Belfield and created for children and families, the previously announced production will run at The Other Place, Stratford-upon-Avon from Friday 19 June – Sunday 30 August.

Completing the announcement and building on the company’s programming for young audiences and families, Ready Steady Colour’s Christmas Feast visits The Other Place from Wednesday 10 December 2025 – Saturday 3 January 2026 with a fun-filled serving of creativity, comedy and music suitable for ages 3+. This 55-minute festive experience by A Line Art invites children and adults to take a seat at a make believe Christmas restaurant, in an interactive, live experience where audiences of all ages become artists of a festive mealtime with a twist.

Priority booking for Members and Supporters opens from Monday 22 September at 10am with public  booking from Wednesday 8 October at 10am. Tickets will be available at rsc.org.uk