Royal Shakespeare Company, Royal Opera, Royal Ballet and more come to BritBox UK In landmark deal

[pictured: Julius Caesar: Donmar Warehouse]

London, 15th July 2020: With theatres and auditoriums still very much subject to restrictions, BritBox subscribers can now enjoy comedies, tragedies, ballets and operas from the UK’s preeminent performers at home, as the service expands to support the British performing arts from 23rd July.

A wide selection of titles will be added to BritBox’s popular and growing Centre Stage collection, which features music concerts, documentaries and comedy and celebrates outstanding British entertainment and performers.

BritBox is creating much ado by adding 25 acclaimed Royal Shakespeare Company productions to the service, which will include the 2016 production of King Lear starring Antony Sher, the 2013 production of Richard II starring David Tennant and the 2018 production of Macbeth starring Christopher Eccleston.

Furthermore, The Donmar Warehouse’s renowned all-female productions of The Tempest (2016), Julius Caesar (2012) and Henry IV (2014), are also being added.

Ballet performances include Tchaikovsky’s The Sleeping Beauty (2017) and The Nutcracker (2018), and Talbot’s Alice’s Adventures in Wonderland (2017), all performed by The Royal Ballet.

Operatic performances round off the collection, with Puccini’s Madame Butterfly (2017), Gounod’s Faust (2019), and Mozart’s Don Giovanni (2019) as performed by The Royal Opera launching on the service.

Productions of Stravinsky’s The Rake's Progress (2010) and Madame Butterfly (2018) as performed at Glyndebourne Opera Festival will also be added.

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Notes to Editors

Content breakdown:

Royal Shakespeare Company Productions

● Titus Andronicus (2017)
● Richard II (2013)
● Love's Labour's Lost (2014)
● Romeo & Juliet (2018)
● Henry V (2015)
● Julius Caesar (2017)
● Henry IV Part 1 (2014)
● Henry IV Part 2 (2014)
● The Merry Wives of Windsor (2018)
● Love's Labour's Won ("Much Ado About Nothing") (2014)
● Othello (2015)
● The Merchant of Venice (2015)
● King Lear (2015)
● Macbeth (2018)
● Antony and Cleopatra (2017)
● Hamlet (2015)
● Coriolanus (2017)
● Troilus and Cressida (2018)
● The Tempest (2017)
● Cymbeline (2016)
● Two Gentlemen of Verona (2013)
● Twelfth Night
● As You like It (2017)
● Measure for Measure (2019)
● The Taming of the Shrew (2019)
● Timon of Athens (2018)

Donmar Warehouse

● Henry IV (2014)
● The Tempest (2016)
● Julius Caesar (2012)

The Royal Opera

● Gounod: Faust (2019)
● Mozart: Don Giovanni (2019)
● Puccini: Madama Butterfly (2017)

Glyndebourne Festival Opera

● Stravinsky: The Rake's Progress (2010)
● Puccini: Madama Butterfly (2018)

The Royal Ballet

● Talbot: Alice's Adventures in Wonderland (2017)
● Tchaikovsky: The Nutcracker (2018)
● Tchaikovsky: The Sleeping Beauty (2017)

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About BritBox

BritBox is a digital video subscription service created by the BBC and ITV. The service brings the very best in past, present and future British programming and award-winning content to viewers all in one place for £5.99 per month in HD. British TV boxsets from All 4 and British films from Film 4 will launch on the service in 2020. The service includes high quality factual and entertainment content from Channel 5 plus original British comedies from Comedy Central UK. BritBox features the biggest collection of British content available on any streaming service, and brand new commissions for British production companies specifically created for BritBox. BritBox also offers expert curation and playlists that will enable viewers to easily find programmes they know and discover new favourites via web, mobile, tablet, connected TVs and streaming devices including Fire TV, Apple TV & Chromecast. Content on BritBox can be downloaded and viewed offline where rights allow.

The Royal Shakespeare Company creates theatre at its best, made in Stratford-upon-Avon and shared around the world. We produce an inspirational artistic programme each year, setting Shakespeare in context, alongside the work of his contemporaries and today’s writers.  We have trained generations of the very best theatre makers and we continue to nurture the talent of the future. We encourage everyone to enjoy a lifelong relationship with Shakespeare and live theatre.  We reach 530,000 children and young people annually through our education work, transforming their experiences in the classroom, in performance and online. We also work with adults who aren’t currently accessing theatre and by 2022, 3,000 adults will participate in the RSCs Shakespeare Nation project, in collaboration with our regional theatre partners.
 
Everyone at the RSC - from actors to armourers, musicians to technicians - plays a part in creating the world you see on stage.  All our productions begin life at our Stratford workshops and theatres and we bring them to the widest possible audience through our touring, residencies, live broadcasts and online activity. So wherever you experience the RSC, you experience work made in Shakespeare’s home town.  Registered charity no. 212481 rsc.org.uk

About the Royal Opera House

The Royal Opera House wants to give everyone access to exceptional ballet and opera. As The Royal Ballet, The Royal Opera and the Orchestra of the Royal Opera House, we bring together the world’s most extraordinary artists in more than 500 performances every year on our two stages. Across the 2018/19 Season we welcomed more than one million people through our doors as ticketholders, participants in our programme of free and ticketed daytime events, and as visitors to our bars, cafes, restaurants and shop. A further one million people enjoyed our work in cinemas, at free screenings and through streamed and televised performances up and down the UK. Our ongoing partnership with the BBC saw 11 of our productions broadcast across their platforms last Season. During the 2018/19 Season our three flagship ROH learning programmes – Create and Sing, Create and Dance and Design and Make – supported teachers from 1,394 schools, 81% of which were outside London, bringing arts to children and young people the length and breadth of the country.