The production marks his first return to the RSC since playing Smike in the company's now legendary early 1980s production The Life and Adventures of Nicholas Nickleby opposite the late Roger Rees in Stratford-upon-Avon, the West End and on Broadway, where Threlfall was Tony nominated as Best Featured Actor in a Play.

Based on Cervantes' comic novel — and being staged in the 400th anniversary of his death, coincidentally the same date as Shakespeare's — Don Quixote has been newly adapted by James Fenton, and will be directed by Angus Jackson. Also in the cast is Rufus Hound, who will play Sancho Panza.



Besides his stage work, Threlfall is best known for his role in Channel 4's "Shameless" and more recently in dramas "Housewife 49," "What Remains," "The Ark" and "Code of a Killer." Hound is about to star in Trevor Nunn's production of Shakespeare's War of the Roses at the Rose Theatre, Kingston. Other theatre credits include taking over from James Corden in One Man, Two Guvnors in the West End and the original London cast of Dirty Rotten Scoundrels.



Also in the spring/summer season, the Royal Shakespeare Theatre MainStage will host A Midsummer Night's Dream: A Play for The Nation, co-produced with 14 amateur companies from every nation and region of the U.K that will be directed by Eric Whyman, and new productions of Hamlet, directed by Simon Godwin with Paapa Essiedu in the title role, Cymbeline directed by Melly Still (Broadway's Coram Boy that transferred from the National) and King Lear, directed by Gregory Doran and starring Antony Sher in the title role.

Also in the Swan Theatre, Maria Aberg will direct Marlowe's Doctor Faustus, and Polly Findlay will direct Ben Johnson's The Alchemist. To book tickets, which go on sale to different categories of members from Sept. 17 and for public booking from Oct. 19, contact the box office on 01789 403493 or visit www.rsc.org.uk