SEVERAL of Shakespeare’s more popular plays feature in the Royal Shakespeare Company’s list of productions for 2018, including Macbeth and Romeo and Juliet.

First up will be Macbeth from mid-March, with a lengthy run through to September 22, then comes Romeo and Juliet and, in a far lighter vein, The Merry Wives of Windsor opens in the summer months.

Macbeth, Shakespeare’s dark tragedy of power and revenge, will feature Christopher Eccleston and Niamh Cusack.

Eccleston, who will be making his RSC debut, received considerable critical acclaim for his role in the recent television drama, The A Word. He will play the title role of the bloody king, alongside Niamh Cusack, who was last seen at the RSC back in 1996 as Rosalind in As You Like It.

Romeo and Juliet will open on April 21 and will be directed by Erica Whyman.

It will be set in a world very like our own, with this Romeo and Juliet about a generation of young people born into violence and ripped apart by the bitter divisions of their parents.

Young people from RSC Associate Schools around the country will share the role of the Chorus with the professional cast.  August 4 will bring The Merry Wives of Windsor to the RST stage and once again, down on his luck in the suburbs, John Falstaff plans to hustle his way to a comfortable retirement by seducing the wives of two wealthy men. Little does he know who really pulls the string.

David Troughton takes on the role of Falstaff after his acclaimed Titus Andronicus this summer as part of the RSC’s Rome season.

Also featuring at the RST will be a revival of Shakespeare’s King Lear for a short run from late May which will see Antony Sher reprise his performance in the title role of this acclaimed production which was first seen in the Royal Shakespeare Theatre and at the Barbican in 2016.  It returns to Stratford after an international tour.

All in all a heady mix to delight fans of the Bard's work

Productions scheduled for the adjacent Swan Theatre are John Webster’s The Duchess of Malfi.

This is another macabre tragedy and was written in 1612. It is loosely based on events that occurred between about 1508 and 1513. First night is March 1.

Later in March brings The Fantastic Follies of Mrs Rich (or The Beau Defeated) by Mary Pix.

Mrs Rich is a wealthy widow who aspires to rub shoulders with the great and good and perhaps even gain a title. Unfortunately, she’s not the only one after Sir John Roverhead!

Pix provides a comedy of manners combining mischief-making and mind-bending plot twists with a sharp satirical and distinctly female wit.

This, it can be said, is then followed by something completely different with a musical on the left and times of Joan Littlewood, who was the anarchic revolutionary of 20th century theatre.

Miss Littlewood - book, music and lyrics by Sam Kenyon, will be at the Swan from June 22 through to August 4 and will relate the tale of the woman born into poverty who raged her way to have lasting influence on British culture.

  Three new RSC commissions will also be showcased between May 28 and June 23 at the Other Place Summer Mischief Festival. These new works will appear alongside a programme of events at this popular venue with further details to be announced in the new year.