Erica Whyman, The RSC's Acting Artistic Director, has announced her final programme with the Royal Shakespeare Company.

This new season includes two magical new productions in the Royal Shakespeare Theatre, whilst the Swan Theatre sees the return of an Elizabethan classic and the stage premiere of a new play, plus a new Shakespeare touring production adapted for ages 8-13 years.

Justin Audibert will make a welcome return to the RSC to direct The Box of Delights, the Company's festive show which opens on Tuesday 30 October and runs until 7 January 2024.

A magical reimagining of John Masefield's much-loved tale, the story tells of orphaned schoolboy Kay Harker who finds himself the guardian of a small wooden box with powers beyond his wildest dreams. Caught up in a battle between two powerful magicians, Kay fights to save not just the people he loves, but also the future of Christmas itself...

Over in the Swan Theatre, Olivier Award-winning playwright, Isobel McArthur, will make her RSC debut directing and adapting Thomas Heywood's Elizabethan comedy-romp, The Fair Maid of the West. This shows at the theatre from 2 December to 14 January.

Isobel McArthur is an Olivier award winning actor, director and playwright. Isobel’s five-star West End adaptation of the classic novel Pride & Prejudice* (*sort of) in which she also starred was awarded Best Entertainment or Comedy Play in the 2022 Oliviers and is now touring the UK, as well as being performed internationally in several languages.

2023 also sees the debut of her original lyrical satire The Grand Old Opera House Hotel for the Traverse Theatre with Dundee Rep, as well as a new adaptation of Robert Louis Stevenson’s Kidnapped for The National Theatre of Scotland.

The production is designed by Ana Inés Jabares-Pita (As You Like It, 2023) with further creative team to be announced.

In 2024, Eleanor Rhode will return to the RSC with a new production of Shakespeare's A Midsummer Night's Dream, which runs at the Royal Shakespeare Theatre (RST) from 30 January to 30 March.

Ben Ravenhill's new play Ben and Imo will make its stage premiere at the Swan Theatre from 21 February to 6 April. The story tells of the creative relationship between composer Benjamin Britten and Imogen Holst, daughter of Gustav and an accomplished musician in her own right.

The RSC's First Encounters series will return with a new reimagining of Shakespeare's Romeo and Juliet, adapted for ages 8 to 13. The production will tour schools and theatres around the country during the Spring of 2024, visiting the Swan Theatre, Stratford-upon-Avon, from 21 to 30 March.

Also in the Swan Theatre, Tracy-Ann Oberman and Brigid Larmour’s gripping adaptation of The Merchant of Venice 1936 will  make a welcome return following a sold-out season in Autumn 2023. The production shows from 24 January to Saturday 10 February.

Speaking of her final season announcement, Erica Whyman, said: “I am properly proud to be announcing this, my last season as Acting Artistic Director. To lead this organisation out of the pandemic has been a privilege and I am enormously proud of the strong foundations I leave for its next chapter.

All these productions will celebrate the power of imagination, from Shakespeare’s delicious fantasy of fairies and lovers to Imogen Holst and Benjamin Britten wrestling with the rigours of a Royal Commission, to the faith a child has that Christmas is worth fighting for. Not to mention the glorious Bess, our Fair Maid, whose adventures in a man’s world will be exuberantly re-imagined, and a new Romeo and Juliet which will insist we properly imagine what it is to be young in a dangerous world.

This season and the artists who lead it -Isobel, Mark, Eleanor, Justin, Piers, Philip, Tracy-Ann and Brigid - embody the qualities I hope have defined my tenure; courage, honesty and ingenuity. I am grateful to them and all the artists and staff who have walked these last wild and rewarding years with me.”

“Joy gentle friends! Joy, and fresh days of love accompany your hearts”  William Shakespeare, A Midsummer Night’s Dream.

For further information on all RSC productions, and to book tickets, visit: rsc.org.uk