RSC to hold festivities for Shakespeare's birthday

The Royal Shakespeare Company (RSC) will be putting on activities to celebrate Shakespeare's 460th birthday.

The festivities will take place in the Bard's hometown of Stratford-upon-Avon, offering visitors the opportunity to take part in various free activities and workshops.

Much of what is on offer has been created with the involvement of the local community.

The annual celebrations will begin on Saturday 20 April, ahead of Shakespeare's real birthday on 23 April.

Free events include performances of The Giant Wheel in the parade, family friendly workshops that teach storytelling based on A Midsummer Night's Dream, and a range of other workshops and activities.

During the town's birthday parade, a community flag created by local groups across Stratford-upon-Avon will be unfurled.

The RSC will also reopen The Play's The Thing, its theatre-making exhibition that contains items from the RSC Collection, including costumes and props since 1879.

There will also be the chance to see the stage performance of Shakespeare's Lover's Labour's Lost and the adaptation of Hanif Kureishi's novel The Buddha of Suburbia.

The official Shakespeare's birthday performance this year will be Love's Labour's Lost, featuring Bridgerton's Luke Thompson as Berowne, in the Royal Shakespeare Theatre.

A 12ft (3.66m) tall giant wheel powered by six street artists and community cast from local organisations in collaboration with the RSC will feature as part of the birthday parade.

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