My RSC Gallery

Uncover the secrets in My RSC Gallery - hidden in more than 50 boxes embedded in our theatre walls

Collage featuring cut out materials including programme cover, group photographs and cut out quotes.
By Deborah Deeley © RSC Browse and license our images

My RSC Gallery is an exhibition created by the public, schools, our staff, creative teams and actors in response to a competition to create a piece of art inspired by Shakespeare, theatre or us. 

Explore the Royal Shakespeare Theatre building to find the little boxes and lift the lids to reveal the stories and inspirations behind each one. Book a theatre tour to see them all. The exhibition was created by artist Luke Jerram with artwork selected through competitions during summer 2010.

Competition Winners 

Below you will find photo galleries of all the winning My RSC Gallery competition entries, alongside the stories and inspiration behind each work of art.

The 53 winning artworks were chosen from hundreds of entries submitted by members of public, schools and our staff and alumni in 2010.

School Winners

Reflections on Shakespeare

Shakespeare is synonymous with images of shipwrecks, islands and wooded glades.  Here the ship, carrier of hope or despair, fortune or misfortune, is depicted in life's stormy sea. A tree, perhaps from the Forest of Arden, bears leaves inscribed with play titles.  Sheltering beneath is a deer, possibly Shakespeare's reason for leaving Stratford.  The book represents the legacy of words he gave to our language. Mirrored images stand for the concept of doubling and twins, a frequently explored theme. As we reflect, we see ourselves. Shakespeare gives something to us all.

The Croft Preparatory School (Technology Group)

By The Croft Preparatory School © RSC Browse and license our images

The Comedy of Errors

I cut out faces from the programme and some things from the ticket. It is David Carr, James Traherne and Richard Katz acting in The Comedy of Errors.

Welford on Avon Primary School (Cameron Carr)

By Cameron Carr, Welford on Avon Primary School © RSC Browse and license our images

A Midsummer Night's Dream

I based my idea upon the character Titania from A Midsummer Night's Dream. I decided to draw the background with watercolour pencil, picturing a fairy sitting next to a tree in the middle of the night. For her wings I cut pieces of card with spaces to put quotes from the play into. I added these because words are very important, as well as art, to express yourself. I also used stitches on one of the wings; this is to show that if something is broken, it can be stitched back together again.

Hillcrest School and Community College (Kirsty Shaw)

By Kirsty Shaw at Hillcrest School and Community College © RSC Browse and license our images

The Dim Light

My picture is about William Shakespeare when he's just about to write one of the many plays he wrote. I chose The Comedy of Errors because I've just seen it in The Courtyard in Stratford-upon-Avon on a school trip.

Welford on Avon Primary School (Hannah Hillier)

By Hannah Hillier, Welford on Avon Primary School © RSC Browse and license our images

A Midsummer Night's Dream

After reading and acting out A Midsummer Night's Dream we decided to create a picture of the woods. Black and yellow tissue paper has been used to create the night sky. We agreed that the story was about love, and the children made red hearts to show that. There were several characters in the story but their favourite was Bottom. You can see him in the front hiding behind the tree. They enjoyed the magic in the story and represented this with glitter.

Kings Caple Primary School (KS1)

By Kings Caple Primary School © RSC Browse and license our images

Amore Vietato ('Forbidden Love')

This piece represents the strong relationship between Romeo Montague and Juliet Capulet. It shows the burning 'Forbidden Love' that the two had for each other. The decaying love notes that lie in the background are similar to those I found on one of my travels to Verona, Italy, placed in the archway leading up to Juliet's statuette and balcony. The worn, decorated mask in the foreground represents the dramatic storyline about the star-crossed lovers created by William Shakespeare.

Homewood School and Sixth Form Centre

By Homewood School and Sixth Form Centre © RSC Browse and license our images

Juliet's Wall of Love

In the summer I went to Verona and visited Juliet's balcony. The entrance to the courtyard is covered in letters to Juliet and is a very inspiring place full of emotion. This photograph captures some of the notes.

Rugby High School (Year 11)

By Rugby High School © RSC Browse and license our images

The Shakespearian Experience 

It has just been the end of another great Shakespeare play and Mr Shakespeare comes to see his crowd applaud his brilliant play.

Welford on Avon Primary School (Rachel Grant)

By Rachel Grant, Welford on Avon Primary School © RSC Browse and license our images

Wool of Bat and Tongue of Dog

Seven pupils worked closely to study ‘The Witches’ Spell’. They each created wooden abstract sculptures based upon the text. Alex Duncan’s work was chosen to represent the group. In his words: ‘Shameful, cruel and hard-hearted are a few words to describe the three witches in Macbeth. Through creating this sculpture, I explored the smells escaping from their cauldron. I tried to imagine what the revolting reek of a lizard’s leg or the vile stink of a dog’s tongue might be like.’

Longlevens Junior School (Creative Intervention Group)

By Longlevens Junior School © RSC Browse and license our images
Launch Gallery

Public Winners

Ganymede - Wit, whither, wilt?

My work illustrates my experience of Shakespeare as a female reader. It emphasizes the playfulness that I believe is at the centre of this relationship. Its inspiration is Rosalind, or the side of her character that I have chosen to illustrate, Ganymede. Ganymede is witty, daring and above all in control of her world, in contrast to the position of women in Shakespeare's time. I'm not calling Shakespeare a feminist - the other side of the story peaks through my work in the shape of Cordelia's lines from King Lear - but I am celebrating Shakespeare's celebration of women's wit.

Anna Reynolds

Image by Anna Reynolds © RSC Browse and license our images

Postcard to Myself

Many years later Romeo and Juliet have faded into obscurity, nobody knows who they are or where they went. To the average observer they would appear as a typical couple, but every now and then Romeo likes to remind Juliet of the past.

David Collier

By David Collier © RSC Browse and license our images

Memories of The Dillen

The Dillen was an RSC production which began at The Other Place and took the audience out around the town. It was first performed in 1983, then again in 1985. It involved two hundred local people and was an amazing experience that brought the townspeople close to the theatre. I used photographs, press cuttings and programmes from my scrapbook made at that time. I hope this box will remind people of this production so that it will not be forgotten. I was lucky enough to be a part of it. Hopefully in the future the RSC may do something like this again.

Deborah Deeley

By Deborah Deeley © RSC Browse and license our images

King Lear and The Fool

I have submitted a three dimensional piece which I feel best represents the multi-faceted nature of theatre productions. I felt inspired after seeing the recent production of King Lear to create the piece and I was keen to juxtapose a traditional Lear with a contemporary Fool. The expressions on the models are intended to illustrate the duality of the theatre as represented by the historical comedy and tragedy masks. The masks originate from the beginnings of the art form and it is fitting that we look back to this time as a new era of theatre production begins in Stratford.

Elizabeth Campbell

By Elizabeth Campbell © RSC Browse and license our images

A Map of Shakespeare

My inspiration was to create a visual map of buildings associated with William Shakespeare. It depicts Mary Arden's House, Shakespeare's Birthplace, Anne Hathaway's Cottage, Hall's Croft, Nash's House and the Holy Trinity Church - buildings connected to Shakespeare and his family, prior to his birth, during his lifetime and after his death. It also depicts The Shakespeare Memorial Theatre, The Swan, The Courtyard, The New Royal Shakespeare Theatre and the Dirty Duck - buildings associated with his 'rebirth' in Stratford-upon-Avon.

Claire Brierley

By Claire Brierley © RSC Browse and license our images

Shakespeare's England

'All the world's a stage'. This is a scene from Shakespeare's England: an era of enlightenment but also of portents and superstition: it is 'dark night…time when screech-owls cry'. Elizabeth I watches over 'the silver sea…this England'. On the horizon is a ship symbolic of naval prowess and exploration. Elizabeth's reign was one of economic and cultural splendour, of the flowering of the Renaissance (Shakespeare is writing Richard II), and of imperial expansion (her hand is on a globe). War, as always, rages.

Alison Binns

By Allison Bins © RSC Browse and license our images

Beauty's Pattern

In gaining a comprehension of Sonnet 19 by William Shakespeare, I then manifested these sequential illustrations to compliment lines from this text effectively. Shakespeare's sonnets are wonderfully complex engaging with the themes of love, time, decay and death. My evocative illustrations enhance the aesthetic nature of poetry; they rely on ambiguity and leave the text open to multiple interpretations. The symbolic nature of this work has unreservedly unleashed my imagination.

Bayley Morris

By Bayley Morris © RSC Browse and license our images

The Madness of Lady Macbeth

My work is painted wax, a scented, organic substance that Shakespeare would have encountered as he worked. Lady Macbeth, with her ambition and treachery veiled by innocence, has fascinated me since my school days. She is seen here masked, framed in a medieval mouth of hell apparently praying for forgiveness as she attempts to wash guilt from her hands. These are shown 'inside out' and bare. Her exposed, hallucinating brain symbolises her madness with winged forms (faeries?) forming a crown. The skeletal figure may be death, a manifestation of Duncan or her husband.

Gabrielle Robert-Dalton

By Gabrielle Robert Dalton © RSC Browse and license our images

A life's Journey for a 4/- theatre ticket

My sister and I queued for 4/- tickets. I stood at the back of Stratford theatre ready to experience my first play. I was 11 when Shakespeare's words became alive, and I became alive to Shakespeare. All the world was definitely a stage! One man in his time plays many parts, his acts being seven ages. Shakespeare's words are for everyone. They are timeless. So my family images are my Shakespearian players. They play their parts with joy, love, drama, tragedy, sadness, courage...

Gillian Russell

By Gillian Russell © RSC Browse and license our images

Whirls of Thought

Whenever I visit the theatre I usually come away feeling a whirl of thoughts and emotions; content, happy, inspired, excited, sad, wanting more, and reliving the performance over again in my head. I have tried to convey these thoughts and emotions through colour and stitch in my piece of art.

Jenny Crowe

By Jenny Crowe © RSC Browse and license our images

Dawn

This painting captures a bitter sweet moment in Romeo and Juliet. It portrays that tender fragment of time as the dawn breaks - just before the birds start to sing - when all is hope, all is possible. This image is of Romeo and Juliet lying on their 'honeymoon' bed, and is my epithalamium (marriage song) to youth, love and innocence. The glass fronted box which the viewers look through to see my work will have a decal on it with pale, ghostly text from the play: 'I have more care to stay than will to go'.

Karen Jones

By Karen Jones © RSC Browse and license our images

Home is where the Heart is

In 2003 my then boyfriend began a season at the RSC. We arrived at his digs at 5 Ryland Street – a tiny RSC worker's cottage in Stratford's Old Town - on a cold March day and I was smitten. I spent eight months dashing up the M40 every weekend to 'play house'. Three years, two further RSC seasons and one proposal later (on tour with the RSC in Japan!) and No. 5 was the first house we lived in after we got married. Who knows how many RSC love affairs No. 5 has hosted but this one is still going strong!

Kate Coleman

By Kate Coleman © RSC Browse and license our images

The Seven Ages of Mandelion

'As You Like It' is very special to me as the first Shakespeare play I ever acted in. I thought the melancholy magic of its most famous speech was echoed beautifully in the life-cycle of the humble dandelion - Shakespeare's 'golden lads'. I reprinted my original pen-and-ink drawing to fit the display cases, the words of the speech (quill-written; Will would be proud!) visible beneath the surface. The paper should slowly yellow, itself subject to the inexorable passage of time, as the RSC moves into another act of its own 'strange eventful history'.

Jon Turner

By Jon Turner © RSC Browse and license our images

A horse, a horse...

Although it follows the Henry VI trilogy, Richard III retains its popularity due to the individuality of the central character. This deformed and murderous man has inspired a variety of interpretations from comic to cut-throat. Laurence Olivier's legendary performance on stage and film depicted Richard as an entertaining villain. Living near Tewkesbury close to a related battlefield, I am acutely aware of Richard's final demise and the loss of his horse.

Maurice Juggins

By Maurice Juggins © RSC Browse and license our images

What angel wakes me from my flowery bed?

One of The Bard's most visually imaginative plays, and my earliest memory of performing Shakespeare – A Midsummer Night's Dream. I've created a 3D forest depicting the scene where Titania wakes to fall in love with Bottom – all due to Puck's mischievous ways. I backed the piece with mirror adding depth to the forest and making the small space appear larger. Despite the often difficult language, anyone can enjoy and be involved in Shakespeare, and with this your own reflection becomes a part of the forest.

Leigh-Anne Gilbert

By Leigh-Anne Gilbert © RSC Browse and license our images

Gleanings from the front row of the stalls

'Take home a piece of the RSC' was once the slogan of the theatre shop, and may still be the ambition of enthusiasts in the front row of the stalls. Crowns, cushions, weapons, even the occasional actor - all would be promptly returned to the stage if they fell among us. But what of those minor items, too insignificant to prompt a stage management retrieval mission? Should they be left to the tender mercies of the cleaning team? Or should they be borne triumphantly away as a memento of a wonderful evening's theatre? Time some of these scatterings were sent home!

Valerie Thompson

By Valerie Thompson © RSC Browse and license our images

Rose by Any Other Word

This image refers to the quote 'a rose by any other word'. Many believe it is 'a rose by any other name'. It matters not, the meaning is integrated into our subconscious. The image tests the observer, drawing them into completing the words and thus the thought. In Shakespeare many monosyllabic words evoke whole emotions, ideas or stories – spot, fool, king, horse, to be, adieu, rose, stage, food – and more. I chose Rose because it is evocative of many things Shakespearean. Who wrote Shakespeare? It matters not, the rose smells as sweet.

Brian Waddelow

By Brian Waddelow © RSC Browse and license our images

Ophelia

This is Ophelia from the Hamlet YPS production at Stratford. Debbie Korley played her with wild hair and streaks of pale makeup across her eyes and cheeks. Ophelia showed her grief by scattering red petals, tossing them at the other characters, and at the audience. I was impressed by the contrasts; the cold colours for the staging, the black and white costumes, and the blood red petals. Both of my boys, aged ten and fourteen, were equally captivated, so well done to Ms Korley and the YPS for bringing Shakespeare so effectively to the young.

Sharon Pemberton

By Sharon Pemberton © RSC Browse and license our images

'The Tempest' Out of the Book

Much of the time, particularly in Shakespeare, we experience a play in its written form. A play is born from its script and the words are used as a platform on which to build a presentation which has more layers and levels. I wanted to depict the moment of transition by making the characters come out of the book in the first scenes of the play The Tempest which is a personal favourite.

Jennifer Hutchings

By Jennifer Hutchings © RSC Browse and license our images

Nickleby's the Best

Of all the RSC productions I've seen, the 1980 nine-hour version of Nicholas Nickleby was absolutely the best. So many memorable moments: Nicholas carrying poor Smike; the cast switching instantaneously from hungry people outside the inn to greedy feeders within; the delightful Crummles; bad Ralph; appealing Noggs and so many other characters. Thank you Dickens, and thank you RSC for so much good drama over the years. As schoolchildren in the 1940s we often went to plays at Stratford. Now 65 years later I look forward to great productions in your new theatre. Good luck, one and all.

Jane Jackson

By Jane Jackson © RSC Browse and license our images

Destruction

This work attempts to capture in colour and texture, the aggression, bloodshed and decay at the heart of Shakespeare's History Plays. The juxtaposition of distressed and scorched fabric with violent red thread is intended to echo the ruinous effects of warfare on a country with the brutality and tyranny of brother against brother, father against son, son against sire. Amid the smoke and dust of battle and leaving chaos and destruction in its wake, this embroidery represents the tragedy of a bloody pursuit for power, glory and a crown.

Jenny Howe

By Jennie Howe © RSC Browse and license our images

Where's Yorick?

Alas, poor Yorick! I knew him, Horatio. Yes, but WHERE is he? Ah, the fragility of life and of the eyesight! Inspired by the 'Where's Wally?' books by Martin Handford, Yorick's skull, the skull of a grinning court jester (he was after all a fellow of infinite jest) is hiding within a mound of other skulls. But WHERE? This is a small 'sculpture' made from cold clay, mounted on a board. Yorick's skull is hidden within but differs by his grin and court jesters hat.

Susan Stevenson

By Susan Stevenson © RSC Browse and license our images

A Midsummer Night's Dream

This was inspired by my having been cast as Oberon at school, aged nine (am now eighty-three) I still know some of the lines. 'Lord what fools these mortals be!' just about sums life up. I've only seen it once at the RSC, namely the famous Peter Brooke production in the early Seventies, which was unforgettable, not just the playing but seeing a magical forest conjuered up without proper scenery.

Anne Irby Crews

By Anne Irby © RSC Browse and license our images

A colourful gift to Stratford and posterity

As you can see from this battered old schoolbook, I seem to have spent more time colouring in the cover of Henry IV than concentrating on the play when I was a fifth-former in the late 1960s - a period when psychedelic art and music inspired my own illuminated manuscript! I blame boring teaching but it may have been the idleness of youth. In the sixth-form, however, we listened to a crackly recording of King Lear and I was thrilled to the marrow. I have regarded Shakespeare as one of life's greatest wonders and consolations ever since.

Charles Spencer

By Charles Spencer © RSC Browse and license our images

Heads and Tales

Human nature, relationships and motivations are all exquisitely expressed in Shakespeare's plays and the drama created allows me to empathise with his colourful characters, learn from them and hopefully develop as a person myself. This is why I love his theatre. This work is inspired by the wonderful emotional landscape Shakespeare evokes on stage and stimulates in the audience. The Heads show a trail of feelings through a play and describe the sheer variety of sentiments expressed through the actors and experienced by us in the audience as we enjoy a Shakespearean play.

John Bailey

By John Bailey © RSC Browse and license our images

To build...or not to build...

An everyday life on the RSC construction site, and an everyday man wearing the burden of hard labour, just to make living.. Is it just that? Or is this man carrying a joy and laughter of the future audience..? And for me it is a little tribute to my colleagues with which I could be a part of building a history. Well done!

Jaroslaw Satala

By Jaroslaw Satala © RSC Browse and license our images

Waiting for Curtain Up

My attention was drawn to the Royal Shakespeare Theatre, still under refurbishment, from the bridge near Cox's Yard. A downpour had given way to a vivid sunset. The theatre glowed against its backdrop as if longing for a return to the limelight. Fittingly, the view became an unfolding drama itself, first reminding me of a work in the style of a Renaissance grandmaster; next, a Hollywood epic scene. Then, sky, architecture and water merged to give an almost abstract image. A photograph hardly did justice to the scene so I recreated the memory in a painting.

Angela Norwood

By Angela Norwood © RSC Browse and license our images

Gold

The Merchant of Venice was the first RSC production I ever saw. The line, 'All that glisters is not gold' was familiar, thanks to a certain Led Zeppelin song. It's when I began to understand the vast influence Shakespeare has had on our language. So many of his words and phrases are part of everyday use. I wanted my artwork to reflect that familiarity and recognition. So the text had to be easy to read and in an accessible, contemporary font. The embroidery and beadwork was inspired by the ornate detail and craftsmanship of many of the costumes used in theatre productions.

Dawn Pinfold

By Dawn Pinfolds © RSC Browse and license our images

A New Life

Hamlet said 'God has given you one face and you make yourself another'. I am often surprised by how actors can step on stage and become someone else, create a new life in that space and a new world to get lost in, so much so that no two productions of the same play are the same. I used photos of current ensemble members to create a new image, embellishing the face of Romanian Joanna Trocin, who moved to Stratford-upon-Avon because of her love of Shakespeare. She reminds me that Shakespeare gives new life to his audience as well.

Nicola Fennell

By Nicola Fennell © RSC Browse and license our images

The course of true love never did run smooth

The course of true love never did run smooth... This wedding cake represents many things. Firstly, each tier represents a different Shakespeare play capturing the love and tragedy within. Secondly, it explores the journey of a relationship from love at first sight, followed by marriage and finally at the top of the cake representing a tempestuous romance. Finally, this piece displays my thoughts and memories of 2010 from performing Shakespeare at university and watching performances at the RSC, all expressed through a hobby of mine, cake decorating.

Sarah Fowler

By Sarah Fowler © RSC Browse and license our images

Ophelia's Watery Grave

Ophelia's passing has been portrayed countless times in paintings and photographs. I set out to capture the drama of her death, a lasting image of Shakespeare's truly beautiful victim of Hamlet. Here you find the contrast of flowers, and the water as the means of her end and her grave. Once she was lovely but we are transfixed now by her pale, dead hands and the still living flowers that she collected in the midst of her madness.

Sophie Organ

By Sophie Organ © RSC Browse and license our images

My First Encounter with Shakespeare

I liked my mum singing this to me in the bath - it seemed to be a very intriguing nursery rhyme. It was especially weird and wonderful due to my limited vocabulary and experience at the time. But imagination and music filled in the gaps - you don't need to understand everything to enjoy it. I remember the sun shining in through the open bathroom window in summer so I'd almost feel I was 'under the blossom that hangs on the bough.' My face in the picture looks more wary than joyous, but these memories are very happy.

Ruth Watkins

By Ruth Watkins © RSC Browse and license our images

Caliban's Dream

Caliban's speech in Act III of The Tempest is so beautiful. Yet he is not. I believe Caliban and the earth of the island are one, composed of the same energy and lifeforce. To portray this connection I drew the main image entirely with pencil dots, representing their energies bleeding into each other. His speech about his dream is seen hiding behind the image, faint in Caliban's subconscious and peeking cheekily through the branches of the island. The picture is constructed of four separate layers to create the illusion of speech and image blending into one. Eloquence juxtaposed with savagery.

Suzy Lawlor

By Suzy Lawlor © RSC Browse and license our images
Launch Gallery

Staff Winners

All Our Best Work

Nine creative minds from our Men's Costume department collaborated to show examples of the skills needed to make costumes of all periods up to the present day.  The details shown here might be missed by the audience's eyes but they help to give life to the characters and narratives of the plays.  Materials used: leather, linen, wool, metal, silk, cotton, organza, cotton and metallic thread.

Men's Costume Department

By RSC Men's Costume © RSC Browse and license our images

A key to the ghost room

In the old RST there was a small room on the first floor from which actors would do interviews with radio stations, organised by the RSC's Press Office.  We called it doing interviews 'down the line' using ISDN technology. The room was dark and very unglamorous. This interview request was one I made to Adam Faith (my mother's heart-throb!) who was appearing in a touring show shortly before his death in 2003. The key to the room can also be seen - quite where the dinosaur came from remains a mystery!

Dean Asker

By Dean Asker © RSC Browse and license our images

Ophelia's Flowers

We are from different teams in the costume department but we often work together to enhance the items we create for the stage. From decoration to distressing we give costumes for Shakespeare's characters a recognisable life story. The same effort goes into making crown jewels for the king through to sack (wine) stains on Falstaff's doublet.  The smallest detail has to be correct to make the illusion on stage complete.

Elaine Moore and Charlotte Hobbs

By Elaine Moore and Charlotte Hobbs © RSC Browse and license our images

Secret Art

This hand-bound book contains costume painting samples created during my ten years in the RSC's Dye department.  Like Prospero's books in The Tempest, this book contains the recipes for illusions; mud, blood, sweat, grime, rain, ash and even snow have been reproduced using all manner of materials.  Many of these techniques have been handed down from one Dyer to another.  Like Prospero's spells, some are closely guarded secrets, and being displayed in a sealed box allows a glimpse of this 'artifice' without divulging their secrets.

Helen Hughes

© RSC Browse and license our images

Exit, pursued by a bear

In The Winter's Tale, Shakespeare moves between the dark mood of the opening three acts and the pastoral comedy of the final two with a strange transition that could be seen as black comedy or high tragedy. Antigonus abandons the baby Perdita and interrupts his final, regretful speech with the cry "This is the chase: I am gone forever."  The stage direction then reads "Exit, pursued by a bear."  With this famous phrase, Shakespeare presents modern directors, designers and technicians with one of the most interesting and difficult challenges they are ever likely to encounter.

Martyn Wood

By Martyn Wood © RSC Browse and license our images

The Beast

During the Complete Works Festival, I was inspired take photographs during dress rehearsals when I was permitted. Looking back through the photos, I found this picture from Rupert Goold's Arctic vision of The Tempest. I could vividly recall this moment as Ariel, played by Julian Bleach, emerged from the carcass of a seal, horrifying the other characters. It was a highly disturbing piece of imagery. I liked the concept of opening a box to reveal this rather sinister image just as Ariel emerged to shock audiences each night.

Paul Tursner-Upcott

Photo by Paul Tursner-Upcott © RSC Browse and license our images

All the World's a Stage

Jaques: "All the world's a stage, And all the men and women merely players: They have their exits and their entrances…"

Ralph Koltai, CBE

By Ralph Koltai, CBE © RSC Browse and license our images

The Many Faces of Shakespeare

This piece is made from fabric scraps from many different costumes I made for the RSC. There is fabric from various shows, including Twelfth Night (2005), The Comedy of Errors(2005), Speaking Like Magpies (2005), The Canterbury Tales (2005), Great Expectations (2005), Women Beware Women (2006), The Tempest (2006), Henry IV (2007), King Lear (2007), The Seagull (2007), Richard II (2007), Coriolanus (2007), Hamlet (2008), The Taming of the Shrew (2008), The Winter's Tale (2009), Othello (2009) and As You Like It (2009). Can you tell which is which?

Veronika Weidenhiller

By Veronika Weidenhiller © RSC Browse and license our images

Golden lads and girls all must, As chimney sweepers come to dust

In 2005, during a production of Twelfth Night directed by Michael Boyd, I stood alone on the old RST stage, singing Feste's final song. As I gazed into the spotlight I saw dust dancing in the air.  I imagined the dramatic DNA held within that dust from countless performances on that old stage. So I took some of that air and bottled it. If you look closely you will see the dust still dances.

Forbes Masson

By Forbes Masson © RSC Browse and license our images
Launch Gallery

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