Sir Kenneth Branagh will return to the Royal Shakespeare Company in spring 2026 for the first time in more than three decades to play Prospero in The Tempest, the RSC and the actor announced. The production, directed by Sir Richard Eyre, and described by the company’s artistic directors as a “once-in-a-generation theatrical event,” is scheduled to run at the Royal Shakespeare Theatre in Stratford-upon-Avon from May 13 to June 20, with press night on May 26.
Branagh, who last appeared at the RSC in 1994 as Hamlet, will also appear in Anton Chekhov’s The Cherry Orchard at the Swan Theatre opposite Academy Award winner Helen Hunt. The Cherry Orchard opens July 10, and both plays form part of the RSC’s 2026 season, which will also include writer-performer Mark Gatiss making his RSC debut in Bertolt Brecht’s The Resistible Rise of Arturo Ui.
Branagh said he accepted the invitation to return to the company “swiftly and enthusiastically,” and recalled his first visit to Stratford in 1978. He told the BBC that he had hitchhiked there at age 17, camping with “a tent, a dream, and three cans of Heinz sausages and beans,” and watched The Tempest from the back of the Gods for 90p. The production that inspired him then starred Michael Hordern as Prospero.
For Branagh, the 2026 engagements mark both a homecoming and new artistic pairings. The Tempest will be the first time he has played Prospero and the first time Sir Richard Eyre has directed Shakespeare for the RSC. Eyre said the play “resonates for me because it’s a play about freedom and power as well as colonialism and art,” and added that Branagh will bring “authority and gravitas” to the role. Tamara Harvey, who is co-artistic director of the RSC alongside Daniel Evans, will direct The Cherry Orchard.
Branagh’s return arrives amid a wider programme of new work at the RSC under Harvey and Evans, whom the actor praised for injecting “a new creative energy” into the theatre’s repertoire. The company said the season will celebrate “theatre-making on an epic scale.” Mark Gatiss’s appearance in Arturo Ui will be among a string of debuts by established screen and stage names at Stratford next year.
Branagh has been preparing physically and mentally for the role of Prospero, saying he began training in March and expects to need “at least a year of many types of exercise — mental and physical” before opening night. He discussed the challenge of attracting contemporary audiences to Shakespeare, saying it is unnecessary to wage a “battle with technology” and that the aim should be to “divert, not convert.”
The actor’s career spans decades of stage and screen work, including acclaimed Shakespeare film adaptations he directed and starred in such as Henry V and Much Ado About Nothing, and later film and television roles in projects including Peter’s Friends, Shackleton, Wallander and the Harry Potter films. Branagh won the Academy Award for best original screenplay for Belfast in 2022 and is attached to the upcoming film The Devil Wears Prada 2 opposite Meryl Streep.
Both Branagh and Eyre used the announcement to make a case for public support of the arts. Branagh recalled that the subsidised 90p ticket that allowed his first visit to Stratford helped launch a career that has since generated substantial cultural and economic returns. He described cultural funding as a “super-power” for Britain. Eyre urged ministers to recognise the arts as essential to national well-being, calling them “weapons of happiness and understanding.”
The RSC said that casting for The Tempest and The Cherry Orchard will include further announcements in the coming months and that rehearsals and production planning are under way. The company’s 2026 season is intended to mark a high-profile return to Stratford programming following recent leadership changes and ongoing debates about arts funding.
Critics and audiences are likely to watch Branagh’s return closely; his 1992 RSC Hamlet was widely acclaimed, and his film adaptations of Shakespeare helped shape modern cinematic approaches to the plays. More than 30 years on from that production, his dual commitments to The Tempest and The Cherry Orchard position him at the centre of one of next year’s most anticipated theatrical seasons.
Tickets for The Tempest and The Cherry Orchard will be available through the RSC box office and website, with more cast and creative-team details to be released by the company as preparations progress.