News from the Royal Shakespeare Company

The cast of The Empress.

The Royal Shakespeare Company (RSC) have announced full casting for its upcoming productions of The Empress, by Tanika Gupta, and world premiere of Falkland Sound by Brad Birch, which will open in the Swan Theatre in the summer of 2023.

These timely and evocative plays are brought sharply into focus in 2023 and offer fresh perspective on Britain’s relationship with its imperial past and how it continues to shape the country’s identity today.

The Empress will run in the Swan Theatre from 7 July to 15 September 2023 before transferring to the Lyric Hammersmith Theatre in London from 4 - 28 October. The production will then return to the Swan Theatre from 1 – 18 November 2023.

The cast of Falkland Sound

Falkland Sound will run in the Swan Theatre from 5 August to 16 September 2023.

Erica Whyman, RSC Acting Artistic Director said: “The RSC has always believed it essential to support and celebrate the living writers who can expose new ways of seeing our collective history and conjure a brave new world that we don’t yet understand. The Empress by Tanika Gupta – now on the GCSE syllabus – presents an extraordinary friendship and a beautiful love story, whilst forensically exposing the blithe injustice of empire.

"Falkland Sound by Brad Birch explores with compassion the human experience of the Islanders during the conflict, and the ferocious politics which informed the British response. Now more than ever it takes courage to speak these truths, as new cultural wars roar and mutter.”

Further details, see our Previews on these plays, or visit: https://www.rsc.org.uk/