The RSC have now announced the full schedule for their year-long Complete Works celebrations, but while the plays may all be there, I am struck by how incomplete the cast lists are: we may have such RSC alumni as Judi Dench, Patrick Stewart, Ian McKellen, Harriet Walter and Janet Suzman returning to the fold, but where are such sometime RSC stars as Fiennes (Ralph or Joseph), Antony Sher, Kenneth Branagh, Alan Howard, Michael Gambon, David Suchet, Derek Jacobi, Sinead Cusack, Jeremy Irons, David Bradley, Fiona Shaw, Juliet Stevenson or Simon Russell Beale? And Peter Hall may be making a return to the company he founded, as is Trevor Nunn who ran it for a long time, but where are former artistic directors Terry Hands or Adrian Noble? Or for that matter, Sam Mendes or Deborah Warner?
Of course, no festival can be complete in every way; and I’m sure approaches were made to some of them, but are we really to be excited by Geoffrey Streatfield as Henry V, Chuk Iwuji as Henry VI, Jonathan Slinger as Richard III, or Tamsin Greig and Joseph Millson as Beatrice and Benedick in Much Ado? Yes, maybe: they are rising actors through the ranks of the RSC ensemble (such as it is nowadays). But it’s nevertheless disappointing that so few of the top-line “star” actors whose careers were initially nurtured at the RSC haven’t used this celebratory occasion to make a welcome return to the company with.
