Royal Shakespeare Company

On our vacation in the Cotswolds, we were lucky enough to obtain tickets to see Hamlet by the RSC in Stratford. The show was wonderful with magnificent performances by David Tennant (of Dr. Who fame) as Hamlet and Patrick Stewart as Cladius. Tickets were hot and very hard to obtain – sold out for months we were told. We stopped by the theatre a couple of times and asked about cancellations and hit it lucky one day when there were two circle seats for the next day’s performance. Cost was face value of GBP20 each versus hundreds of pounds on E-Bay!! Well worth it. We also were able to see the Merchant of Venice, again with cancellation tickets. For sold out performances, our experience is that it is worth going to the box office to check on cancellations – seemed to work much better than calling the box office or checking the web site. It is really worth seeing Shakespeare in the round.

You will be guaranteed a fantastic night of theatre if you visit the RSC at the home theatre. Every seat is good and the RSC perform Shakespeare like no one else. If you are used to seeing your local theatre group perform, you will be amazed at the difference. After about 5 minutes you will even forget that they are speaking in verse, it all seems so natural - brilliant productions. The theatre restaurants are pretty good and the location right on the river is superb. Try and get one of the backstage tours which only cost a couple of pounds. Very interesting and if you have always longed to step onto the famous stage, this is your chance. I have never been to a show here and not been thrilled by what I have seen. There are 2 other theatres in use as well as the main auditorium, also worth visiting.