The North-East is very much a part of the RSC's new artistic director's ambitious plans for the company. Christen Pears reports on the launch of this year's season.

MICHAEL Boyd has a daunting task ahead of him. When Adrian Noble, his predecessor as the Royal Shakespeare Company's artistic director, resigned last year, the future looked bleak.

His decision to pull out of the Barbican left the RSC without a London home and his plans to pull down the Royal Shakespeare Theatre, the main house in Stratford, attracted a barrage of criticism. Add to that spiralling debts and lukewarm reviews and you begin to get some idea of what Michael is up against.

But just a month into his post and in Newcastle to launch the company's 26th season, he seems in high spirits. You get the sense he's genuinely excited about bringing the RSC to the North-East in November.

So how would he sum up the forthcoming season? "There's a lot of Shakespeare, which kind of makes sense," he laughs, alluding to last year when there were just two Shakespeare productions.

This time, audiences will be able to see five plays, including some of the bard's less frequently performed works: Measure for Measure, Richard III and Titus Adronicus at the Theatre Royal, with As You Like It and Cymbeline at Newcastle Playhouse. John Fletcher's rarely seen play, The Tamer Tamed, a kind of sequel to The Taming of the Shrew, will also be at the Playhouse.

Award-winning actress Emma Fielding will be taking on the role of Isabella in Measure of Measure, while Henry Goodman returns to the RSC after 15 years to play Richard III. He has just returned from Broadway where he garnered critical acclaim in The Producers and Tartuffe.

Sean Holmes, whose production of The Roman Actor was an enormous success at the Playhouse last year, directs both Measure for Measure and Richard III. RSC honorary associate director Bill Alexander will direct Titus Andronicus a violent work last performed by the RSC in 1987. David Bradley, best known as Filch in the Harry Potter films, takes on the title role.

But while Michael knows the importance of the core repertoire, he's also keen to nurture and promote new talent and new works. One of the most exciting developments of the forthcoming season will be a joint production between the RSC and Live Theatre of Newcastle-based poet and playwright Sean O' Brien's new play Keepers of the Flame. In fact, it will be opening the season on November 4, two weeks before the curtain goes up at the other venues.

The two companies worked together last year, when there was a mini season of new writing, with workshops, readings and talks but this takes the relationship a step further.

"This year, we are going 'grown up' for the first time There were times I thought it was never going to happen - this enormous institution, the RSC, and this fleet, nimble thing called Live. How can you make them mesh successfully? I think, finally, we have got around to that."

Keepers of the Flame was read last year at the as part of the festival and explores the eternal themes of love, art and politics in the time of war.

While Michael is contemplating the future of the company as a whole, including restructuring it and finding a new London home, he is absolutely committed to Newcastle.

"We're not fair weather friends," he says, referring to Newcastle Gateshead bid of European Capital of Culture 2008. "We will be whichever way it goes."

He's already talking about 2005 as a big year for the North-East. It will be the quarto centenary of Gunpowder Plot, when he hopes to bring together a series of plays based around the idea of dissent. There is also talk of an international festival of theatre in the region. Other projects include a contemporary version of the Mystery Plays with North-East playwright Lee Hall.

He's acutely aware of the huge public subsidy received by the company and very conscious of its need to fulfil its responsibilities but while he wants to maintain the company's traditions, he also wants to take it in new directions.

He hopes to re-focus on the ensemble cast, once the backbone of the company, although there will also be room for short contracts that would attract the likes of Judi Dench and Ralph Fiennes, currently starring in Brand at Stratford.

"There will be no more looking back through rose tinted spectacles to the golden days but rather looking forward to the golden days ahead," says Michael.

* The RSC's Newcastle season will run from November 4 to December 6. Booking office 0870 905 5060.