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The Royal Shakespeare Company is to celebrate the 450th anniversary of Shakespeare’s birth in 2014 with live screenings, a collaboration with the Barbican and the launch of new project Shakespeare Nation.

Following the production of Richard II, starring David Tennant in October and November, artist director Gregory Doran will start the summer season in March by directing Henry IV Parts I and II.

All three will move onto the Barbican main stage next year as part of a three-year collaboration with the centre.

One of Shakespeare’s earliest plays, The Two Gentlemen of Verona, will be staged in repertoire for the first time in 45 years by up-and-coming director Simon Godwin, whose production of Eugene O’Neill’s Strange Interlude starring Anne-Marie Duff played to critical acclaim at the National Theatre.

And The Swan Theatre puts on a Roaring Girls season with three rarely-performed Jacobean plays about women - The Roaring Girl, Arden Of Faversham and The White Devil.

Mr  Doran said: “The next three years span two significant anniversaries for Shakespeare; the 450th anniversary of his birth in 2014 and 400th anniversary of his death in 2016.

"These landmark dates have helped to frame our programming over this jubilee period.

“Under the banner Shakespeare Nation, we will lead a truly nationwide celebration of our greatest playwright, starting next summer and culminating in 2016 with a national tour of A Midsummer Night’s Dream, with Bottom and the rude mechanicals played by amateur groups in every location.”