Celebrating Shakespeare’s birthday and our partnership with the Royal Shakespeare Company’s Associate Schools Programme
Thu 16 Apr 2026This week marks both Shakespeare’s birthday (on Thursday 23 April) and the return of the RSC to the Marlowe Theatre, as they perform Hamlet in our Main House. To celebrate, there will be a range of activity across the Marlowe Theatre, including work shared by Kent schools in our RSC Associate Schools Programme.
During this week-long festival of activity, other events taking place in the building include a sound installation in our Crown Bar Front of House space. Audiences can listen to two original songs, inspired by Hamlet, which were created by adults from Pilgrims Hospice Canterbury and young women from Kent Refugee Action Network (KRAN) alongside professional musicians. Shakespeare Ambassadors will also be performing Hacked Down Hamlet on the theatre forecourt ahead of the shows on Wednesday 22 April, Thursday 23 April and Friday 24 April. These short, 10-minute-long performances are student-devised and accessible, designed to give an insight into the themes of Hamlet and introduce audiences to Shakespeare’s stories and language.
Students from the RSC’s Associate Schools Programme have been able to creatively explore the themes of Hamlet, to present in a sharing on Tuesday 21 April. The programme is designed to develop and improve access to Shakespeare, and we are the RSC’s Associate Theatre in the South East.
RSC Associate Learning Practitioner Chris White (who co-ran the young writer’s programme at Soho Theatre), delivered writing workshops at Kent schools Queenborough Primary School, Milton Court Primary Academy, Dane Court Grammar School and The Orchard School, to give young people the chance to explore the themes of Hamlet and write and devise their own original new work as part of Hamlet Week. Students from the schools have then worked with their teachers to bring this writing to life through performances featuring the following elements:
- Milton Court School’s performance will present letters and diaries that explore the thoughts of the guards seeing the ghost of Hamlet’s father, as well as the relationship between Hamlet and Ophelia.
- Queenborough School will present short soliloquies that take us through the story of Hamlet through the internal thoughts of key characters.
- Dane Court Grammar School are performing a series of character monologues and an ensemble piece.
The Orchard School will not be performing but have explored the text in a sensory way and created emotive word collages.
Members of the Marlowe Youth Company will also present their work on this date, in the same sharing event.
This work is part of a long-standing and successful relationship with the RSC. In Kent and Medway, the Marlowe Theatre has been running the Associate Schools Programme as a partner of the RSC ever since it began and is a lead partner in the programme, which consists of 22 schools. Schools join the programme for two years and will benefit from a range of teacher training days and workshops with students. Schools gain invaluable support with bringing Shakespeare into the curriculum and access to industry-leading professionals, all of which positively impacts students’ development.
Young people are offered incredible performance opportunities as part of this programme, both on the Marlowe Theatre’s stage and in inspirational places around Kent for immersive site-specific performances. Last year, 11 schools (over two days) and up to 660 young people took part in Voyage of Their Lives, performing along the shoreline at Samphire Hoe in Dover.
This year, students from the RSC’s Associate Schools Programme will be performing King Lear: I Was Everything at the Marlowe Theatre, exploring scenes Shakespeare’s iconic tragedy. Performances will be taking place in the Main House on Monday 22 and Tuesday 23 June.