ALL roads, according to the very old saying, lead to Rome but now it seems Rome will be heading for the Midlands.

The Royal Shakespeare Company has just announced its spring and summer 2017 season and it has a very strong flavour of Rome.

The theatre’s Rome season will see four of Shakespeare’s great political thrillers on offer at the Royal Shakespeare Theatre, with Angus Jackson as season director, as the RSC marks 2,000 years since the death of Ovid.

Meanwhile the Swan Theatre will host the first in the RSC’s ongoing Chinese Classics translation project with Frances Ya-Chu Cowhig’s version of Snow in Midsummer based on the classical Chinese drama by Guan Hanqing.

There will also be the world premiere of a new Richard Bean play, The Hypocrite, presented with the Hull Truck Theatre and Hull UK City of Culture 2017 and, as part of the Rome season:

* World premiere of a new play by Phil Porter, Vice Versa, inspired by Plautus’ comedies.

* Oscar Wilde’s Salomé.

* and Christopher Marlowe’s Dido, Queen of Carthage.

The Rome season will also be taking in four of Shakespeare’s most political and bloody plays, set in and around ancient Rome.

These are - Julius Caesar, directed by Angus Jackson – March 3 to September 9 (live to cinemas April 26), Antony & Cleopatra, directed by Iqbal Khan – March 11 to September 7(live to cinemas May 24), Titus Andronicus, directed by Blanche McIntyre – June 23 To September 2 (live to cinemas August 9), and Coriolanus, directed by Angus Jackson – dates to be announced – booking opens February 2017.

Snow in Midsummer by Frances Ya-Chu Cowhig, based on the classical Chinese drama by Guan Hanqing, directed by Justin Audibert - February 23 to March 25, The Hypocrite, by Richard Bean, directed by Phillip Breen - March 30 to April 29, Vice Versa (or the Decline and Fall of General Braggadocio at the hands of his canny servant Dexter and Terence the monkey), by Phil Porter, lovingly ripped off from the plays of Plautus - May 11 to September 29, Salomé by Oscar Wilde, directed by Owen Horsley - June 2 to September 6, and Venus & Adonis, directed by Gregory Doran - July 26 to August 4.