David Tennant is returning to the stage, to play the role of Richard II, with the Royal Shakespeare Company. The former Doctor Who star will be directed by Gregory Doran, the new artistic director at the RSC, who made the announcement today, The Guardian reports. Also revealed in the statement was news that the RSC would be returning to its old home at the Barbican, after Richard II had run in Stratford between October 10 and November 16, though a search for a permanent London home was on-going. The forthcoming season will also see the company tackle adaptations of Man Booker Prize winner Hilary Mantels’ Thomas Cromwell novels.

Tennant and Doran were previously paired in the 2008-9 production of Hamlet. It was a highly revered, though ill-fated production. Tennant prolapsed a disc in his spine and was forced to abandon the show for a month. Speaking about the Hilary Mantel adaptations, Doran said “Hilary Mantel has been working alongside us to find a genuine theatrical language for these plays, even promising to include material she left out of the books in order to do so.”

Other plans afoot at the RSC include a new family show, entitled Wendy & Peter Pan, by Ella Hickson, which is said to lend a fresh perspective to the JM Barrie classic. 

David Tennant

David Tennant is heading back to the stage to join the RSC once more