RSC to return to the Roundhouse

The Royal Shakespeare Company (RSC) is returning to London's Roundhouse following a successful season in 2008.

The company will present six full-length plays, opening with Rupert Goold's production of Romeo and Juliet in November.

RSC artistic director Michael Boyd said London audiences would see the 44-strong cast in "full flight".

He said: "From work of great emotion, elemental chaos and haunting tragedy, to moments of subversive wit and unabashed clowning, the cast have responded to a repertoire encompassing the broadest scope of human experience."

As well as the six full-length plays, the season also includes family-friendly productions of Hamlet and The Comedy of Errors created especially for children by the Young People's Shakespeare (YPS).

The RSC's latest London residency follows their successful Histories season, also at the Roundhouse, in 2008.

Vikki Heywood, RSC executive director, said in a statement: "We are delighted to be reinstating our 750 seat 'Roundyard' auditorium inside the central columns of the Roundhouse which was such a sensational space for the Histories.

"This specially-constructed auditorium replicates our temporary theatre in Stratford-upon-Avon, The Courtyard Theatre, which is itself a prototype for the new Royal Shakespeare Theatre, due to open in late 2010.

"The intimate auditorium wraps the audience around three sides of a thrust stage, bringing everyone really close to the action."