The annual festival celebrating all things Shakespeare is back!
After months of preparation, York International Shakespeare Festival returns today, Tuesday 21 April, with more than 40 events taking place across the city during the next ten days.
There will be a variety of events on offer, from performances to comedy to workshops to birthday parties.
The festival will run until 3 May 2026, presenting a variety of arts and culture inspired by Shakespeare from all around the world.
Check out our guide below to nine events you don’t want to miss.
To see the full programme of events for the festival, visit the York International Shakespeare Festival website.
Nine highlights for York International Shakespeare Festival
With Love’s Light Wings
With Love’s Light Wings is a theatrical experiment inspired by Shakespeare’s Romeo and Juliet, presented as a variation on its central theme.
The result is a radically reimagined interpretation, staged as a two-actor (plus two supporting roles) performance that challenges conventional theatrical norms. It defies genre boundaries, uniting diverse expressive tools and artistic forms to create an eclectic aesthetic. Distinct scenes and characters are represented symbolically – often through objects – shifting focus from narrative to metaphor.
This theatrical collage merges elements of dramatic theatre, puppet theatre, finger performance, pantomime, musical and vocal expression, choreographic elements, as well as other theatrical forms.
Presented by Shota Rustaveli Theatre and Film Georgia State University & Tbilisi Giorgi Mikeladze State Professional Puppet Theater. This production is made possible due to the Georgian Shakespeare Association and its head – Manana Anasashvili.
- York St John University Creative Centre Auditorium, Lord Mayors Walk, York YO31 7EX
- Tue 21 Apr
- 8:30pm
- Pay What You Can
- Tickets
Love’s Labours Lost
Shakespeare’s sharpest comedy of wit and wordplay meets the world of nightlife. Four former DJs have sworn to renounce pleasure and distraction — but when the Princess of France and her companions arrive, their solemn vows soon unravel.
Performed in a bar and underscored by live DJ music, York Shakespeare Project’s bold new Love’s Labour’s Lost mixes sparkling verse with rhythm, dance, and visual flair. A playful, immersive take on Shakespeare’s comedy of love, temptation, and folly.
- Theatre@41, 41 Monkgate, York YO31 7PB
- Wed 22 – Sat 25 Apr
- 7:30pm (2:30pm Sat matinee)
- £15
- Tickets
Shakespeare and the Alchemy of Gender
Visionary theatre artist Lisa Wolpe’s solo show Shakespeare and the Alchemy of Gender offers a unique celebration of the power of the eloquence of Shakespeare to build empathy and understanding in a world where the unspeakable seems to happen again and again.
Lisa is an expert on gender-flipping Shakespeare a well as an actress, director, teacher, writer, traveler and distinguished scholar. Her one-woman show explores her experiences as an activist for inclusion, diversity, equity, access, promoting women’s rights, and racial equality. It features stories about her family, focusing on her father, Hans Wolpe, a hero in WWII, as well as pieces of Shakespeare including Shylock, Hamlet, Richard III, and more, elucidating life lessons learned through playing male characters in the Shakespeare canon.
Her work speaks towards liberation from the “gender box” of expectations, and offers a unique and powerful perspective of courage, resilience and hope against her family’s troubled background of war, sickness, suicide and despair.
- York St John University Creative Centre Auditorium, Lord Mayors Walk, York YO31 7EX
- Wed 22 Apr
- 7:30pm
- From £5
- Tickets
The Bard’s Birthday Bash
Join Friargate’s own merry band of improvisers for a night of spontaneous silliness. Taking suggestions from the audience, our players will celebrate Shakespeare’s birthday by making up some brand new comedies in honour of the bard. Watch our jesters compete to win the ‘hollow crown’ in a series of games where anything can happen and probably will. You don’t need to be ‘well-versed’ to enjoy this night of nonsense, just come and party with us at the Big Bard’s Birthday Bash!
- Friargate Theatre, York, YO1 9SL
- Thu 23 Apr
- 7:30pm
- £9.50
- Tickets
Hamlet
One month. That’s how long it’s been since Hamlet’s father died. One month. That’s how long his mother waited before she remarried. One month. That’s how long Hamlet had to mourn before his father’s ghost appeared and asked him to avenge his death. The time is out of joint. And somehow, for some reason, it’s Hamlet who has to set it right. Someone who was supposed to be a poet, now has to become a soldier.
Presented by University of Arts Targu Mures, Romania
- York St John University Creative Centre Auditorium, Lord Mayors Walk, York YO31 7EX
- Thu 23 Apr
- 7:30pm
- From £5
- Tickets
Shakespeare and Sanctuary
Shakespeare has a lot to say about exile and welcome – and the Festival provides a place of sanctuary for displaced people. Join us in the Shakespeare Hub at Friargate Theatre to mark our recent Sanctuary in the Arts Award, and celebrate the contribution made by diverse communities in York with talks and performance.
- Friargate Theatre, York, YO1 9SL
- Fri 24 Apr
- 10:30am
- Free
- More info
Shakespearean Dance Workshop
Step into the enchanting world of Elizabethan elegance and rhythm in our Shakespearean Dance Workshop!
Shakespeare is known to be a fantastic social commentator and his mentions of dance gives us a fascinating insight to the popular entertainment of the time. Discover how dance not only enhances storytelling but also connects us to the period in which Shakespeare was writing. Come and learn some of the Elizabethan dances mentioned in Shakespeare’s works including The Canary, Kemp’s Jig, the Pavan, the Queen’s Almaine and La Volta!
Try something new, meet fellow enthusiasts, and connect to the past in this unforgettable afternoon where literature and dance intertwine!
- York St John University Creative Centre Auditorium, Lord Mayors Walk, York YO31 7EX
- Sun 26 Apr
- 12pm
- From £5
- Tickets
Spooky Shakespeare Suitcase Theatre
Hags, hauntings, hobgoblins and more emerge from the spooky suitcase owned by Lady Macbeth (Dotty to her friends).
These spectres from performances past are stuck in limbo, and they have one final mission: to retell their legendary stories before they can finally find peace in the literary afterlife. But beware – not every ghost is a friendly one! As the lid creaks open, you’ll have to decide. Are these spirits here to play, or will they need to be vanquished back into their supernatural suitcase?
Join Hoglets Theatre for a funny, high-energy, and captivating children’s theatre experience. This intimate production brings a world of intricate handmade puppets and original music to life, proving that even The Bard’s massive imagination can fit inside a single suitcase.
- York St John University Creative Centre Auditorium, Lord Mayors Walk, York YO31 7EX
- Wed 29 Apr
- 6:30pm
- From £10
- Tickets
2026 Wrap Party
Last year’s blowout bash to celebrate another year of Shakespearean revelry was such a success we’ve brought it back! Join all of your favourites for a night of fun, foolishness, and festivities, celebrating two weeks of world-class Shakespeare, before we say goodbye for another year.
Get out the good wine, wear your finest ruff, and let the Bard do the rest!
- Theatre@41, 41 Monkgate, York YO31 7PB
- Sat 2 May
- 8pm
- £5
- Tickets
