IT would appear the coming year is going to be quite a special one for the Royal Shakespeare Company and not just in Stratford-upon-Avon but right around the country.

The spring and summer season, which will help kick off the celebrations for Shakespeare’s 400th birthday, include highlights such as A Midsummer Night’s Dream: A Play for the Nation - which will also tour round the country - and a newly adapted stage version of Don Quixote.

Meanwhile, on the Bard’s birthday, April 23, there will be a fun-packed day of free outdoor events, including a breath-taking show by acrobatic company, Mimbre, inspired by Shakespeare’s stories, and a firework display.

There will also be The Shakespeare Show - a working title, to be broadcast live on BBC2 from the Royal Shakespeare Theatre. This will be a special evening event hosted by David Tennant, celebrating Shakespeare’s legacy across all the arts, in a unique collaboration between the RSC and the BBC.

Other highlights to come in the new year are productions of Hamlet, with Paapa Essiedu in the title role and Cymbeline, both of which will be performed in the Royal Shakespeare Theatre, along with A Midsummer Night’s Dream, while in the Swan Theatre, and marking 400 years since Ben Jonson’s First Folio and the death of Cervantes, audiences will be able to see Christopher Marlowe’s Doctor Faustus.

The Swan will also host Don Quixote, which has been newly adapted for the stage by James Fenton from Miguel de Cervantes’ comic novel with David Threlfall as Don Quixote and Rufus Hound as Sancho Panza, and there will also be a production of Ben Jonson’s The Alchemist.

As for other events at Stratford in 2016 there’s the re-opening of The Other Place in April - with the return of the RSC’s studio theatre, a new café and a brand new Page to Stage Tour.

Also re-opening will be the Swan Wing following major heritage restoration, and then later in the year comes The Play’s the Thing, a new exhibition opening in June, revealing the secrets and stories from over 100 years of theatre-making history in Stratford.