Britain’s Royal Shakespeare Company, among the world’s most famous and critically acclaimed theaters, will return to Chicago next fall for the first time in 30 years with a new staging of William Shakespeare’s “Pericles,” produced in collaboration with Chicago Shakespeare Theater.
“Pericles,” a poignant late romance, will play first at the Swan Theatre in Stratford-upon-Avon, U.K., and then move to Chicago for a run from Oct. 20 to Dec 8 in CST’s Courtyard Theater. Tamara Harvey, who is in her first season as co-director of the RSC, will direct the show. In an interview Monday, CST artistic director Ed Hall said he hoped this would be the first example of “a new partnership between the two theaters, meaning works can move backward and forwards.” Hall said the RSC was not planning to broadly tour the show in the U.S. and this would be a true co-production; the Swan and the Courtyard Theater have many physical similarities and this new relationship is, without question, a coup for Chicago, assuming it comes to fruition as planned. In recent times, the closest the RSC has come to town is Ann Arbor, Michigan.
Chicago Shakespeare on Tuesday announced its upcoming season on Navy Pier.
From July 19 to Sept. 1, CST’s Yard Theater is hosting the musical version of J.R.R. Tolkien’s “The Lord of the Rings.” This reimagined staging by director Paul Hart has its origins at the U.K.’s Watermill Theatre. An attempt to rehabilitate what is one of literature’s great titles, the reboot of the show (book and lyrics by Shaun McKenna and Matthew Warchus) follows a memorably disastrous epic staging in Toronto in 2006.
In a departure from past practice, CST will itself produce just one mainstage Shakespeare play in the coming season: “Henry V,” directed by Hall, who said he would interrogate the play’s famous nationalistic tendencies, to be staged this fall from Sept. 6 to Oct. 6 in the Courtyard (now named the Jentes Family Courtyard Theater).
Hall will also direct the “Short Shakespeare! A Midsummer Night’s Dream” youth production, a 75-minute staging slated for the Courtyard from Feb. 4 to March 8, 2025. Executive director Kimberly Motes said the theater would expand the number of available performances from 30 to 40 in the hope of attracting more school groups to Navy Pier, and Hall said his involvement reflected his desire to focus on young audiences.
Similarly in the realm of youth programming, Amber Mak will direct an adaptation of Don Freeman’s “Corduroy” for children this coming summer (June 18 to July 14). This adaptation premiered in 2018 at the Children’s Theatre Company in Minneapolis, Motes’ former institution.
Also on the slate: CST will present what is basically a mini national tour of the Broadway show “Jaja’s African Hair Braiding” (in the Yard Jan. 14 to Feb. 2, 2025), as penned by Jocelyn Bioh and directed by Whitney White. In the Upstairs space, the theater will present “Avaaz” (Jan. 21 to Feb. 9, 2025), a one-person show by Michael Shayan, directed by Moritz von Stuelpnagel, also on a U.S. tour. Shayan performs in the guise of his own Jewish-Iranian mother, Roya.
Next spring includes a version of “Hamlet” from the Teatro la Plaza of Lima, Peru (March 13-23, 2025), and a new staging of Lolita Chakrabarti’s London hit “Hymn” (April 29 to May 25, 2025) which Hall said the British playwright (writer of “Red Velvet”) would adapt so it was set in Chicago.
Finally, from March 21 to April 27, 2025, CST will stage Hall’s production of the musical “Sunny Afternoon,” a long-in-gestation jukebox show celebrating the music of Ray Davies and The Kinks, as penned by Davis and Joe Penhall and previously seen in London. The Yard Theater will see the North American premiere of a show likely to attract commercial attention.
In general, the slate represents something of a return to pre-pandemic levels of activity at Chicago Shakespeare and is reflective of the backgrounds of its two new leaders, as well as indicative of the new blending of production and presentation that is becoming common at non-profit theaters now far more likely to partner beyond their own walls.
Chris Jones is a Tribune critic.
cjones5@chicagotribune.com
