The Royal Shakespeare Company’s main theatre in Stratford seats 1,040
Stratford’s big year
On 23 April 1616, St George’s Day, William Shakespeare shuffled off this mortal coil. Four centuries on, his home town is gearing up for a year of big events. On the 23rd itself, by tradition Shakespeare’s birthday, parades and street entertainment take place across Stratford-upon-Avon, with a group from the New Orleans Shakespeare Festival leading a jazz procession along streets dotted with half-timbered Tudor houses. On the following day, the annual Shakespeare Marathon is joined this year by a Sonnet Rap Marathon featuring all 154 of the bard’s sonnets. If you can’t make the big weekend, come instead to catch A Midsummer Night’s Dream, Hamlet or Cymbeline at the Royal Shakespeare Theatre, or wait until the summer when Shakespeare’s New Place opens after a revamp.