RSC Co-Artistic Directors Daniel Evans and Tamara Harvey today announce further details of their 2026 Season which sees Tony award-winning Broadway star Jonathan Groff make his RSC début and Harriet Walter return to the company in a landmark RSC touring production, celebrating 20 years of transformative partnership work in schools.

Joining the previously announced world premiere of Game of Thrones: The Mad King, the first-ever stage play arising from George R. R. Martin’s epic fantasy series, is a joyful, all-male staging of Shakespeare’s  As You Like It, a landmark revival of Julius Caesar directed by Phyllida Lloyd, set in a women’s prison and touring to schools and communities across England throughout the autumn, a vibrant retelling of George Eliot’s Middlemarch, adapted by Nina Raine and directed by Jeremy Herrin, and a mischievous take on Alexandre Dumas’ The Three Musketeers by Paul Hunter in a riotous new co-production with Told by an Idiot.

RSC Co-Artistic Directors Daniel Evans and Tamara Harvey said:

“We are delighted to share our new season, which brings together five productions including an epic fantasy, a 19th century literary masterpiece, a swashbuckling adventure and two plays from our in-house playwright. Each of these productions, in their own way, celebrate how time-honoured stories, when viewed through fresh eyes, can defy expectations, and help us to see the world around us anew."

In the Royal Shakespeare Theatre, Tony Award-winning Broadway star Jonathan Groff plays Rosalind in a joyful new production of William Shakespeare’s As You Like It, directed by RSC Co-Artistic Director Daniel Evans. The production marks Groff’s RSC début performance, having previously originated the roles of Melchior Gabor in Spring Awakening the musical and Kristoff in Disney’s Frozen franchise. His performance as King George III in the international smash-hit musical Hamilton was a fan-favourite, and he won his first Tony Award for playing Franklin Shepherd in the revered revival of Merrily We Roll Along. Jonathan can currently be seen playing Bobby Darin in the hit Broadway musical Just in Time at the Circle in the Square Theatre, New York.

He is joined by Fisayo Akinade in the role of Celia. On screen, Fisayo is best known for his roles as Dean Monroe in Russell T. Davies’ hit Channel 4 series’ Cucumber and Banana and Mr. Ajayi in the 2022 Netflix series Heartstopper. Fisayo’s theatre credits include playing Gary in the UK premiere of Jeremy O. Harris’s groundbreaking Slave Play at the Noel Coward Theatre and Reverend Hale in The Crucible, directed by Lyndsey Turner at the National Theatre, alongside roles in Alistair McDowall’s 2022 play The Glow for The Royal Court and Anne Washburn’s Shipwreck at the Almeida Theatre.

As You Like It plays from Saturday 26 September - Saturday 7 November with press night on Tuesday 6 October.   

In The Other Place, Olivier Award-winning actress Harriet Walter returns to the RSC to play Brutus in a revival of Phyllida Lloyd’s landmark, all-female, Julius Caesar.

First performed at the Donmar Warehouse in 2012 under Artistic Director Josie Rourke and Executive Director Kate Pakenham as part of a trilogy of all-female Shakespeare plays, the production follows a group of female prisoners who choose to perform Shakespeare's play to express their preoccupations with freedom and justice. The original production was famously described by The Observer as “one of the most important theatrical events of the last 20 years” and remains a seminal event in theatre history.

This First Encounters with Shakespeare production, produced in partnership with KPPL Productions, sees Harriet Walter and the company tour to schools across England for five weeks from Monday 21 September - Friday 23 October as part of a series of events celebrating 20 years of the RSC’s pioneering partnership work with schools and theatres, after which the production will visit The Other Place from Thursday 5 - Saturday 28 November.

An in-depth series of in-school workshops and post-show discussions will accompany the production. These live events, unique to each performance, will see cast, creatives, young people and guest speakers from local communities and the criminal justice system discuss how this 400-year-old text connects with our lives and world today.

In the Swan Theatre, George Eliot’s expansive study of provincial life, Middlemarch, comes to the stage in a sweeping two-part adaptation by Nina Raine (Consent, Tribes, Tiger Country). Directed by Jeremy Herrin (Guess How Much I Love You and The Spy Who Came in From the Cold) in co-production with Second Half Productions, this beloved story of a fictional 1832 Midlands town at the precipice of pivotal social change will be performed with Part 1 playing from Thursday 1 October and Part 2 from Saturday 10 October, and running until Saturday 16 January, with press performances on Wednesday 28 October at 1pm and 7pm.

Looking ahead to the festive season in the Royal Shakespeare Theatre, audacious theatre company Told by an Idiot unleash their trademark visual comedy on Alexandre Dumas’s thrilling classic novel in The Three Musketeers, playing from Saturday 28 November - Saturday 9 January with press night on Tuesday 8 December.  Adapted and directed by Told by an Idiot Co-founder and Artistic Director, Paul Hunter, this wild new stage adaptation brings together an international company of performers, captivating live music and a charmingly unreliable Spanish narrator, in a theatrical feast full of energy, joy and a raging zest for life.

Priority booking for all newly announced productions opens from Monday 2 March at 10am with public booking opening on Wednesday 18 March at 10am. For further information on how to become an RSC Member or Supporter, visit the website.

Priority booking for Game of Thrones: The Mad King opens from Tuesday 14 April 2026 with public booking from Friday 24 April 2026. More information will be announced later in the year.