RSC comes in from the cold

The Royal Shakespeare Company's decision to desert the Barbican sparked accusations it had left its London audiences high and dry.

Today, however, after almost four years without a permanent base, the RSC has found not just one new home in the capital but three.

The national company, which receives more than £12million of public funding, has struck a deal with Sir Cameron Mackintosh that means London theatregoers will have an RSC season every year for the next five years.

For four months from December the newly renamed Novello theatre, formerly The Strand, will play host to an RSC season of Shakespeare's comedies transferred from Stratford-upon-Avon.

For the four years that follow, Sir Cameron has committed to handing over The Novello or two of his other theatres, The Aldwych and The Albery (soon to be renamed the Noël Coward), for seasons of equal length.

The deal will add momentum to an upsurge in the fortunes of the RSC, which booked the Albery Theatre last winter and saw its tragedies season play to 87 per cent capacity audiences, earning more than £1.6 million at the box office.

Executive director Vikki Heywood said: "This is a good deal for our audiences and guarantees an RSC London season in one of three fantastic West End playhouses.

"We proved at the Albery that we can bring a distinctive RSC personality to the West End, with discounted tickets and a full education programme and still play a Shakespearean season with 'full house' notices posted consistently outside the theatre."

This year's comedies season at The Novello will include RSC artistic director Michael Boyd's production of Twelfth Night, Nancy Meckler's production of The Comedy Of Errors, Dominic Cooke's As You Like It and Gregory Doran's A Midsummer Night's Dream.

The deal with Sir Cameron lasts only five years because by 2010 the RSC plans to have completed a new theatre at its spiritual home, Stratford. It will then establish a permanent-London base.

Ms Heywood said: "The deal secures the company's future in London while we continue our search for a long-term home for the RSC in the capital.

"We're well advanced now in our plans for a large-scale auditorium in Stratford that Shakespeare would recognise as a theatre. The challenge on the horizon is to find a complementary theatre in London."

Today's news means the company is no longer exposed to attack - and headline-grabbing suggestions by the London Assembly its government funding be stripped - for failing to give Londoners access to its work.

Sir Cameron, whose hugely lucrative musical Les Miserables has run for 20 years and was originally a collaboration with the RSC, said: "I could not be more delighted that the Royal Shakespeare Company has decided to make a five-year commitment to do its London seasons in one of my theatres.

"It has always been my ambition to have an ongoing relationship with an internationally acclaimed subsidised company as part of our programming."

Public booking for the RSC's comedies season in London opens on 1 October. Box office: 0870 609 1110.