LIVE AT THE RSC: 5 DAYS OF MUSIC AND COMEDY IN THE ROYAL SHAKESPEARE THEATRE

ON SALE FROM TUESDAY 11 APRIL

rsc.org.uk - 01789 331111

Live at the RSC images can be downloaded HERE

Issued: 11 April 2023

Live at the RSC returns to the Royal Shakespeare Theatre, Stratford-upon-Avon between Wednesday 31 May and Sunday 4 June with a festival of live music and comedy, in association with Orchestra of the Swan and Underbelly.

Alice Tomlinson, RSC Public Programmes Developer, said “We are delighted to bring Live at the RSC back to the Royal Shakespeare Theatre for the first time since the pandemic. We’ve got a fantastic line up, both of live music - courtesy of our community partner, Orchestra of the Swan – along with some of the best names in comedy.  It promises to be five days of early Summer entertainment not to be missed.”

Wednesday 31 May, 7.15pm
Red Sky at Sunrise: Laurie Lee in Words & Music
Presented by Orchestra of the Swan
Tickets: £15-£22

The programme opens with a unique performance by Orchestra of the Swan who present Red Sky at Sunrise: Laurie Lee in Words & Music. Red Sky at Sunrise follows Lee's extraordinary journey through his much-loved trilogy, Cider with Rosie, As I Walked Out One Midsummer Morning and A Moment of War, from growing up in Gloucestershire, to fighting with the International Brigades in the Spanish Civil War. Laurie Lee is performed by Anton Lesser and Charlie Hamblett, with music from Orchestra of The Swan, featuring Mark Ashford on guitar.

Anton Lesser is an RSC Associate Artist, and his extensive credits for the Company include The Winter’s Tale, Cymbeline and The Taming of the Shrew.  On screen his credits include Wolf Hall, Andor, Game of Thrones, Endeavour and The Crown.  Charlie Hamblett began his career on stage in the RSC’s The Histories Cycle, directed by Michael Boyd.  Charlie’s West End credits include The Resistible Rise of Arturo Ui and The Tempest. On screen, his credits include Killing Eve, The Secret Agent and Around The World in 80 Days.

 

Thursday 1 June, 7.15pm
Thursday Night Comedy: Charlie Baker, Nina Conti and Rachel Parris
Presented by Underbelly
Tickets: £18.50 - £27.50

Some of stand-up comedy’s best and brightest take to the stage for the opening night of the comedy programme. Join the incomparable MC Charlie Baker (as seen on The Last Leg & The Great British Bake Off: Extra Slice, as heard on TalkSport) as he presents two incredible performers Nina Conti and Rachel Parris. Nina is the quick-thinking queen of ventriloquism and British Comedy Award winner. Rachel is a BAFTA nominated comedian, musician, actor and improviser, best known for her viral segments on BBC2's The Mash Report and now as the host of Dave's Late Night Mash.

Friday 2 June, 7.15pm
Friday Night Comedy:
Ian Smith, Mark Watson, Fern Brady, Zoe Lyons and Sarah Keyworth
Presented by Underbelly
Tickets: £18.50 - £27.50

What better way to round out the week than with a huge line up of some of the best comedians in the land! Delightful Yorkshireman Ian Smith (as heard on his own BBC Radio 4 comedy documentary) hosts Taskmaster stars Mark Watson and Fern Brady as well as Zoe Lyons (as heard on BBC’s News Quiz, The Now Show) and Sarah Keyworth (as seen on BBC One’s Live at the Apollo).

Saturday 3 June, 7.15pm
Saturday Night Comedy:
Ivo Graham, Rhys James, Jessica Fostekew, Celya AB and Tadiwa Mahlunge
Presented by Underbelly
Tickets: £18.50 - £27.50

A perfect night of comedy for a Saturday night. Leading the charge is the fantastic MC Ivo Graham (as seen on BBC One’s Live at the Apollo and appearing in the next season of Taskmaster). Joining him will be Rhys James (as seen as a series regular on Mock The Week), Edinburgh Comedy Award Best Show Nominee Jessica Fostekew, and two of the rising stars of comedy Celya AB and Tadiwa Mahlunge.

Sunday 4 June, 2.30pm
Austentatious – An Improvised Jane Austen Novel
Presented by Underbelly
Tickets: £18.50 - £27.50

The award-winning smash-hit comedy, as seen in the West End and heard on Radio 4. The all-star Austentatious cast will improvise a hilarious new Jane Austen novel, inspired entirely by a title from the audience. Performed in period costume with live musical accompaniment, it’s a riotous, razor-sharp show where swooning is guaranteed.

The revolving Austentatious cast include numerous, award-winning TV and Radio starring performers, including Rachel Parris (The Mash Report, Live at the Apollo), Cariad Lloyd (QI, Inside No.9, Griefcast, The Witchfinder), Joseph Morpurgo (Radio 4, Edinburgh Comedy Award nominee), Andrew Hunter Murray (No Such Thing As A Fish) and more.

‘Ridiculously silly…wickedly funny’ ★★★★★ The Times

‘A joy to behold’ ★★★★ The Guardian

‘Brilliant, barmy improv’ ★★★★ The Telegraph

‘Sheer unbridled silliness’ ★★★★ Evening Standard

 

For more press information please contact:
Dean Asker, Senior Media Relations Officer, RSC
dean.asker@rsc.org.uk, 0778 9937759

 

NOTES TO EDITORS

BOX OFFICE
www.rsc.org.uk, 01789 331111

Tickets for Red Sky at Sunrise: Laurie Lee in Words & Music: £15-£22
Tickets for all Underbelly shows: £18.50 - £27.50

 

BIOS

Red Sky at Sunrise: Laurie Lee in Words & Music

Orchestra of the Swan
Formed in 1995, Orchestra of the Swan is a British chamber orchestra which, under the artistic direction of David Le Page, is passionate about audience inclusivity and blurring the lines between genres, through its adventurous and accessible programming.

Presenting over 45 concerts a year – both live and digital with a catalogue of over 29 recordings, the Swan is passionate about new music and has premiered more than 70 new works by composers including Joe Cutler, Tansy Davies, Joe Duddell, Alexander Goehr, Roxanna Panufnik, Joseph Phibbs, Dobrinka Tabakova, Errollyn Wallen, Huw Watkins, John Woolrich and many others.

The Swan's recent mixtape albums Timelapse, Vivaldi Sleep and Labyrinths have broken the mould of classical recordings, reaching a new 8 million-strong global digital audience.

The Swan has been enormously successful in making a positive and effective contribution to the communities at the heart of its ‘immersive residencies’ in Herefordshire, Warwickshire, Worcestershire and Birmingham with an ambitious programme of work in care homes, schools and rural areas growing year by year.

Based at the Warwick Schools’ Foundation in Warwick, the Swan is proof that an orchestra really can be an indispensable and relevant part of the community with its aim to entertain, educate and engage in a way that truly makes it a living orchestra.

“The individuality of The Swan is beyond doubt.” Classical Explorer

 

Anton Lesser
Anton Lesser is one of our best-loved actors. An associate of the RSC, Anton’s renowned

body of work includes Theatre, Film and TV, including Endeavour, the BBC’s Wolf Hall (Sir

Thomas More), The Crown (Harold Macmillan), Game of Thrones and Andor. Anton also has one of the country’s best-known voices, thanks to his extensive work with BBC Radio (Falco) and audiobooks, including most of Dickens’ novels. His recording of Great Expectations won him a Talkie Award. Anton’s majestic Paradise Lost featured on the BBC’s recent epic series, Art That Made Us.

 

Charlie Hamblett
Charlie Hamblett grew up in Stratford-upon-Avon. He began his career on stage in Michael Boyd’s Histories Cycle. His West End credits include The Resistible Rise of Arturo Ui and The Tempest . His extensive Film and TV work includes Killing Eve, Macbeth, Around the World in Eighty Days with David Tennant, Grantchester, and The Secret Agent with Vicky McClure and Toby Jones. He’s currently filming Ghosts, Mrs Sidhu Investigates, and The Burning Girls.

 

Laurie Lee
Laurie Lee was born in 1914, and brought up in the village of Slad, in Gloucestershire. He left home at nineteen to begin a journey on foot that would take him first to London and, a year later, to Spain. Lee joined the International Brigades – those legendary bands of young Britons, French, Dutch, Germans, Poles, Canadians, Americans, Czechs and Russians, who followed their ideals to Spain, to fight in the Spanish Civil War. Lee fought in the Republican army against Franco’s Nationalists, although his service was cut short by epilepsy. During the Second World War, Lee made documentary films for the GPO and Crown Film Units, and worked as Publications Editor for the Ministry of Information. Cider with Rosie was published in 1960 and was an instant success. This allowed Lee to live off his writing, and he spent his last years in Slad, defending his beloved valley against developers. He was a fixture in The Woolpack Inn and liked to recount how school pupils studying Cider with Rosie would ask him ‘where Laurie Lee was buried’. He died in Slad in 1997, aged 82.

COMEDY PERFORMANCES

CHARLIE BAKER
Charlie Baker’s versatile talents as a stand-up comedian, actor, and highly acclaimed jazz-singer have seen him earn a reputation as ‘a superior take on the modern showman’ (The Guardian). Baker has appeared on shows such as Richard Osman’s House of Games, The Last Leg, Harry Hill’s Tea Time, Comedy Central at the Comedy Store, The Great British Bake-Off: An Extra Slice, Never Mind The Buzzcocks, Edinburgh Comedy Fest Live, The Dog Ate My Homework and Channel 4’s Comedy Gala.  An avid sports fan, Charlie can be heard on Talksport every Saturday for the Game Day Warm Up as well as covering on weekdays on Hawksbee and Jacobs, which has built him a huge and loyal following.

2022 saw Baker star in the leading role in Harry Hill’s Tony! [The Tony Blair Rock Opera] at London’s Park Theatre.  Previous acting credits include Four Weddings and a Funeral, Back, The IT Crowd and Miranda. Baker has also starred in Vexed, Eastenders, Doctor Who and feature film The Boy in the Striped Pyjamas.

Charlie has proven himself a staple act of the Edinburgh Fringe Festival since his debut solo hour in 2009 which won him the Mervyn Stutter Spirit of the Fringe Award. This led to sell-out runs with four shows. Charlie is currently supporting Jack Dee on his tour and is also working on his own brand-new stand-up show.

NINA CONTI
Nina has won a British Comedy Award for storming Live at the Apollo, Russell Howard's Good News, Sunday Night at the Palladium, and made a BAFTA nominated film - all without even moving her lips.

Nina began her career as an actress at the Royal Shakespeare Company before the genius, and anarchic theatre director Ken Campbell inspired her to become a ventriloquist. In 2008 she won the prestigious Barry Award at the Melbourne International Comedy Festival for her solo show Complete and Utter Conti. In 2010, Talk to the Hand had sell-out seasons in Edinburgh, London, Melbourne, the Sydney Opera House and New York.

Other television credits include QI, The John Bishop Show and Chris O'Dowd's HBO series Family Tree. She is also a regular in Clare and the Community – the Sony award-winning show on BBC Radio 4.

Nina has turned her hand to documentary film-making with her most recent exploit, Clowning Around (in which she trained as a children's hospital clown), airing to great critical acclaim. Her directorial debut, Her Master's Voice in which she took the bereaved puppets of her mentor, Ken Campbell, to a puppet graveyard in Kentucky, won her a BAFTA nomination and a Grierson Award.

Nina is currently on tour with The Dating Show, travelling around the UK.

RACHEL PARRIS
Rachel Parris is an award-winning musical comedian, actor, improviser, and presenter. She was nominated for BAFTA for Best Entertainment Performance in 2019 and beat Tiffany Haddish, Ellen DeGeneres, and Amy Schumer to become Female First’s Comedian of the Year 2018. Her incisive and hilarious segments on the hit BBC2 series The Mash Report have been worldwide viral smash hits all across social media, firmly establishing her as a breakout comedy star.

More recently her Lockdown LipSync videos have been a huge hit online during the Coronavirus lockdown and have also featured on Home Alone (BBC 2) and Good Morning America (ABC).

Rachel has also appeared on Live At The Apollo (BBC 2), QI (BBC 2), Would I Lie To You (BBC 1), Mock The Week (BBC 2), Hypothetical (Dave), Impossible Celebrities (BBC 1), Harry Hill’s Clubnite (C4), The Big Narstie Show (C4), Comedians Giving Lectures (Dave), Richard Osman’s House Of Games (BBC1), Zoe Ball On Saturday (ITV) and The Graham Norton Show (BBC 1), as well as hosting A Girls Guide To TV (BBC2).

Rachel is also a much-loved voice on the radio. She is a regular panellist on Radio 4 shows including I’m Sorry I Haven’t A Clue, The News Quiz, The Now Show and The Unbelievable Truth and has had two shows of her own on Radio 4: Austensibly Feminist about Jane Austen and Da Da Da Daaaaa about Beethoven’s Fifth Symphony to mark his 250th anniversary.

Rachel is a founding member of the acclaimed improv show Austentatious, which has toured nationally, enjoyed sell-out runs at the Edinburgh Fringe, and a weekly West End residency at the Fortune Theatre.

Rachel has taken many critically acclaimed solo shows to the Edinburgh Fringe, Soho Theatre, and on tour. Her last tour It’s Fun To Pretend (2018-19) was extended due to popular demand and culminated in two sold-out shows at London’s Bloomsbury Theatre. Her next show All Change Please will tour the UK in 2021.

As an actor, Rachel has appeared in There She Goes (BBC 4), Plebs (ITV 2), Revolting (BBC 2), The IT Crowd (C4), Count Arthur Strong (BBC 1), Murder In Successville (BBC 3), Russell Howard’s Good News (BBC 3) and Trying (Apple TV) and on stage in Death Ship 666, at the Jermyn Street Theatre.

IAN SMITH
Ian Smith is a multi-award-winning comedian, actor and writer. He has appeared on BBC Fresh From the Fringe, BBC3 panel show Sweat the Small Stuff and BBC Radio 4’s The Now Show.

Ian’s Edinburgh Fringe shows have received critical acclaim, an Amused Moose Comedy Award, ThreeWeeks Editors’ Award, various nominations and runs at Soho Theatre.  His last three shows have seen him invited to perform at New Zealand Comedy Festival, and perform at the prestigious New Zealand Comedy Gala (TVNZ). This year Ian will also be travelling to Adelaide and Melbourne Comedy Festivals as part of Best of the Edinburgh Fest.

Ian is a regular writer on The News Quiz, The Now Show and Newsjack (BBC Radio 4). He’s also written two of his own web series – Hope You Come Up Here and the Chortle Award nominated 100 Reasons to Hate… His debut Radio 4 show, the comedy documentary Girl Stuck in a Basketball Hoop was broadcasted in May.

“A riot of sprightly silliness” ★★★★ Chortle

MARK WATSON
Edinburgh Festival Award Winner and Time Out Critic’s Choice, Mark’s recent TV credits include QI (BBC2) Taskmaster (Dave) and Bear Grylls’ Celebrity Island (Channel 4).

Mark has been the face of shows such as BBC Four’s We Need Answers and BBC Radio 4’s Mark Watson Makes The World Substantially Better. He has also appeared on Mock The Week, Celebrity Pointless, Have I Got News For You, Would I Lie To You?, Live At The Apollo and Channel 4’s Comedy Gala. 

Not only a stand-up, Mark has written seven novels: Bullet Points (2004), A Light-Hearted Look At Murder (2007), Eleven (2010), The Knot (2012), Hotel Alpha (2014), The Place That Didn’t Exist (2016) and Contacts (2020). In 2017, his graphic novel Dan and Sam was purchased by Amblin, Steven Spielberg’s studio, for a possible film adaptation.  In 2020 he arranged and hosted The Watsonathon, a 24 Hour online show which raised over £44,000 in aide of FareShare, Hospice Income Generation Network, and the Nextup Comedy Heckle The Virus fund. He will also be on tour with his latest show, How You Can Almost Win, which was inspired by his time on Bear Gryll’s Celebrity Island.

FERN BRADY
Known for being totally unique and completely fearless, her caustic wit, exceptional writing and electric stage craft has made Fern one of the UK’s hottest comedy stars. As seen on Taskmaster, Live from the BBC, British As Folk, The Russell Howard Hour, and Live at the Apollo.

Featured in Vogue as one of the Top 5 Female Comedians as well as the Telegraph’s Top 5 young comedians to watch, Fern’s career has gone stratospheric in the last 18 months. She's become a fan-favourite on the latest season of Taskmaster, had a sell-out tour of the UK with her latest show Autistic Bikini Queen, a sell-out run at the Melbourne Comedy Festival and her debut book Strong Female Character is set to be released in early 2023.

ZOE LYONS
Host of BBC2’s Lightning and Live at the Apollo, and guest co-host of Sunday Morning Live (BBC1) and The Frank Skinner radio show (Absolute Radio). A regular on Have I Got News for You (BBC1), QI (BBC2), and Mock the Week (BBC2).

TV also includes a special on Alopecia for Women’s Health (C5) and a feature on The One Show (BBC1), Celebrity Antiques Road Trip (BBC2), Stand Up and Deliver (C4), House of Games (BBC2), Funny Festival Live (BBC2), Guessable (Comedy Central), The Apprentice: You’re Fired (BBC2), Hypothetical (Dave), Between the Covers (BBC2), Celebrity Eggheads (BBC2), University Challenge The Graduates (BBC2), The Blame Game (BBC1 NI), The Dog Ate My Homework (CBBC), Dave Gorman’s Terms and Conditions Apply (Dave), Pointless Celebrities (BBC1), The One Show (BBC1), Room 101 (BBC2) Alan Davies As Yet Untitled (Dave) and the winner of Celebrity Mastermind (BBC1).

Zoe is an immediately recognisable voice on Radio 4. A regular on The News Quiz, Just a Minute, The Unbelievable Truth and The Now Show, plus her own four part series Passport Paddy. Radio also includes Breaking the News, The Good the Bad and the Unexpected, Fred MacAulay at The Stand, The Frank Skinner Show and The Jason Manford Show. Podcasts include Walking the Dog, An Hour or So with Sue Perkins, James Acaster Stay Home Special Series and The Guilty Feminist.

Zoe is a regular at the Edinburgh Festival with shows such as, Entry Level Human, Mustard Cutter and Little Miss Misfit, all of which have toured the UK and been praised by critics and audiences alike. She has also performed at the Melbourne Comedy Festival, Latitude, Kilkenny and Pride Festivals. She also hosts her own award winning monthly comedy night in Brighton – Bent Double.

Zoe is an award winning stand-up, winner of Dave’s Joke of the Fringe, Comedian’s Comedian of the Year, and The Funny Women Award, as well as being nominated for the Edinburgh Best Newcomer Comedy Award.

SARAH KEYWORTH
Sarah Keyworth is an award-winning stand-up comedian and writer.

Since first performing stand-up at university, Sarah has fast become one of UK comedy’s brightest new talents. Having already been a Funny Women runner-up, 2018 saw Sarah take her debut hour, Dark Horse, to the Edinburgh Fringe Festival. A thoughtful and hilarious meditation on gender, girlhood and the challenges of growing up different, the show was a huge critical hit, receiving four and five star reviews from The Herald, Telegraph, Scotsman and many more. The show also received a Herald Angel Award, a Pleasance Theatre Award and a nomination for Best Newcomer in the Edinburgh Comedy Awards.

Sarah’s broadcasting career is also firmly on the up. She has appeared on BBC2’s Live At The Apollo and Mock The Week, Comedy Central UK’s Roast Battle, ITV2’S Stand Up Sketch Show, performed stand-up on BBC Radio 4 institution The Now Show, and has a number of her own TV and audio ideas in development with a range of production companies and broadcasters. Sarah wrote and performed her own series, Are You A Boy Or A Girl, for BBC Radio 4 and co-hosted hit relationship podcast You’ll Do for BBC Sounds.

IVO GRAHAM
Despite extensive grooming for more serious careers at Eton and Oxford, Ivo Graham has spent his entire adult life on the comedy circuit, establishing himself as, if not the UK’s poshest, then certainly its most apologetically posh comedian. With a bumbling charm to snare audiences of all ages, he’s sold out six runs at the Edinburgh Fringe, the latest of which was nominated for the prestigious Best Show award in 2019, and appeared on TV shows including Have I Got News for You, QI, The Last Leg, Mock the Week and Live at the Apollo.

Ivo can be heard on BBC Radio 4’s The Now Show, The News Quiz, and the drama Unite. He is also a writer on BBC 5 Live’s Fighting Talk, Channel 4’s The Last Leg and Jack Whitehall: Christmas With My Father.  Ivo starred in the brand-new 2021 comedy series British as Folk (Dave/UKTV) which saw him travel across the nation with co-hosts and fellow comics Fern Brady and Darren Harriott, exploring British class and culture.  He is currently filming the new series of Channel 4’s Taskmaster.

RHYS JAMES
Rhys James is an accomplished comedian, writer and actor who you will have seen on Roast Battle (Comedy Central), Russell Howard’s Stand Up Central (Comedy Central), A League of Their Own (Sky One) and Live At The Apollo (BBC Two) and as a regular panellist on Mock The Week (BBC Two). He has performed six solo shows at the Edinburgh Fringe to sell-out audiences and critical acclaim, with his 2019 show Snitch being one of the best reviewed comedy shows at the Edinburgh Fringe. He has had three BBC Radio 4 series, Rhys James is…, Rhys James Isn’t… and Rhysearch, all met with great acclaim and delight of listeners and critics. Rhys also hosts podcast Early Work in which he interviews celebrities about the creative writing they did before they were in their current vocation, guests include O-T Fagbenle, Sara Pascoe, Lolly Adefope and Tom Rosenthal.

He is also known for his prolific Twitter feed which has been recommended in The Telegraph, The Sun, Huffington Post, The Poke and The Gentleman’s Journal among others.

Rhys hosted a weekly show on The Football Republic for two years called Top 10 Football F**k Ups which garnered a weekly audience of well over 150,000 viewers, as well as a weekly segment on BBC2's The Premier League Show called Rhys's Pieces. Other appearances include Sky’s Soccer AM, Football’s Funniest Moments, BBC1’s Football Focus, BT Sport’s Football Tonight, Absolute Radio’s Rock n Roll Football and TalkSport among others. Rhys is also in demand with many social football channels, writing scripts and featuring in videos for Spencer FC, and frequently appearing as a guest on shows for Goal, Ball Street, Sporf, Bleacher Report and more.

"Scintillating stand-up" - The Times ★★★★

"A cut above his humdrum peers." The Independent ★★★★

“An immaculately crafted set… crowd-pleasing, relatable entertainment rarely comes any sharper.” Evening Standard  ★★★★

“A superb tour de force of observational comedy, delivered with punchy, rapid-fire certainty” Chortle ★★★★

JESSICA FOSTEKEW
Jessica Fostekew is a comedian, actor and writer whose stand up show, Hench was nominated for the 2019 Edinburgh Comedy Award for Best Show. It's now available as a stand up special on Amazon Prime and has been adapted into the BBC R4 stand up special - Powerhouse.

Jessica's credits are numerous, she has appeared on BBC2's Live at The Apollo, QI, Richard Osman's House Of Games, Dave Gorman's Modern Life is Goodish, Comedy Central's Pep Talks and more. She is also co-host of The Guilty Feminist (podcast with 60 million+ downloads) and host and creator of foodie hit and new chart-topping pod, Hoovering (recommended in the Guardian and The Independent).

Jessica has co-written and stars in Real Friends, a new special for Sky. She also has a new BBC Radio 4 series, Strong Girls Club commissioned for release in 2023.

As an actor, she’s amassed a slew of impressive credits, including; Avoidance (with Romesh Ranganathan), The Trouble With Maggie Cole, Cuckoo (BBC/ Netflix), Motherland, Out of Her Mind, Trigonometry and BAFTA multiple-award winning BBC drama, Three Girls. You can catch her in the feature films, Official Secrets from Gavin Hood and Greed from Michael Winterbottom.

You can also hear her regularly on BBC Radio 4 & 4 Extra on The Comedy Club, Museum of Curiosity, The News Quiz and The Podcast Radio Hour.

Jessica's writing credits include two script commissions from the BBC, her own Radio 4 special as well as writing on a raft on popular TV shows including; Cats Does Countdown, Mock The Week and many other topical and entertainment shows.

"A new fiercely funny strain of comedy that’s her own" The Independent

"A loud, lively and vital voice" The Evening Standard

"Wears her smarts on her sleeve, great stuff" The Guardian

CELYA AB
Parisian Celya moved from the French capital to Birmingham. She is one of comedy’s most exciting breakthrough voices.  Celya’s magnetic stage presence and brilliantly crafted material has been seen on Comedy Central and the BBC.

‘A strong debut hour by a comic shooting to fame.’ ★★★★ List

TADIWA MAHLUNGE
Billed as “one of the country's top new comedy acts” by The York Press, Tadiwa Mahlunge has performed at, among others, the Latitude, Greenman, and Greenwich Comedy Festivals - alongside the biggest names in comedy - and has provided tour support for Kiri Pritchard-McLean and Jessica Fostekew, and TV warm up for Desiree Birch’s Amazon Prime special.

As seen on BBC 1, BBC 2, Dave, Comedy Central, UTV, Comic Relief and heard on BBC Radio 4, BBC Radio Wales, BBC Radio Northampton and BBC Sounds - Tadiwa Mahlunge has established himself as one of comedy’s hottest prospects. As such, he featured on the 2022 Pleasance Comedy Reserve at the Edinburgh Fringe Festival.

“Fearless comedian on the rise.” - Daniel Kaluuya

“Tadiwa has been gathering pace as a prodigious act and landing a highly sought after spot on the Pleasance Reserve has cemented his star in the making status” - Kiri Pritchard-McLean

 

The work of the RSC is supported by the Culture Recovery Fund

The RSC is generously supported by RSC America

Royal Shakespeare Company (RSC)

The Royal Shakespeare Company is a theatre and learning charity that creates world class theatre, made in Stratford-upon-Avon and shared around the world, performing plays by Shakespeare and his contemporaries, as well as commissioning an exceptionally wide range of original work from contemporary writers. Our purpose is to ensure that Shakespeare is for everyone, and we do that by unlocking the power of his plays and of live performance and our learning and education work throughout the UK and across the world.

We believe everybody’s life is enriched by culture and creativity. We have trained generations of the very best theatre makers and we continue to nurture the talent of the future. Our transformative Learning programmes reach over half a million young people and adults each year, and through our Creative Placemaking and Public Programme we create projects with and for communities who have not historically engaged with our work. We are a leader in creative immersive technologies and digital development.

We have a proud record of innovation, diversity and excellence on stage and are determined to grasp the opportunity to become an even more inclusive, progressive, relevant and ambitious organisation.

We have one of the UK’s largest arts learning programmes, working with over 1,000 schools each year to broaden access to high quality arts learning and transform experiences of Shakespeare in schools. Through our national partnership programme with schools and regional theatres we target areas of structural disadvantage, including 26 areas of multiple deprivation across the country, from Cornwall to Middlesbrough. Research shows that our approaches to teaching Shakespeare support the development of reading and writing skills, accelerate language acquisition and development, raise aspirations and improve student attitudes to school and learning in general. They also foster well-being, self-esteem, empathy, resilience and tolerance and promote critical-thinking, creative, analytical, communication and problem-solving skills.

We are committed to being a teaching and learning theatre and we are the only arts organisation to have been awarded Independent Research Organisation status.  We create world class theatre for, with and by audiences and theatre makers of all ages. We provide training for emerging and established theatre makers and arts professionals, for teachers and for young people. We share learning formally and informally. We embed training and research across our company, work and processes. 

We recognise the climate emergency and work hard to embed environmental sustainability into our operations, creative work and business practice, making a commitment to continually reduce our carbon footprint.

Keep Your RSC supports our mission to create theatre at its best, unlocking Shakespeare and transforming lives. Thousands of generous audience members, trusts and foundations and partners supported Keep Your RSC since 2020, alongside a £19.4 million loan from the Culture Recovery Fund, we are thrilled to be welcoming audiences back. It will take time to recover, to reopen all our theatres, and many years to repay the loan and the support and generosity of our audiences is more important than ever. Please donate at rsc.org.uk/donate

Arts Council England is the national development body for arts and culture across England, working to enrich people’s lives. We support a range of activities across the arts, museums and libraries – from theatre to visual art, reading to dance, music to literature, and crafts to collections. Great art and culture inspires us, brings us together and teaches us about ourselves and the world around us. In short, it makes life better. Between 2018 and 2022, we will invest £1.45 billion of public money from government and an estimated £860 million from the National Lottery to help create these experiences for as many people as possible across the country.www.artscouncil.org.uk