The Royal Shakespeare Company has announced the line-up for its London Winter-Spring 2001-2002 season, which runs from Oct. 23 to May 11, 2002.

Bookings for all shows open on Nov. 7, unless otherwise noted.

At The Barbican:

The season starts with Alice In Wonderland, which opens on Oct. 26 and is already booking. Lewis Carroll's classic children's story has been adapted for the stage by Adrian Mitchell, and will be directed by Rachel Kavanaugh, with Katherine Heath in the title role. The production, a new one for the RSC, combines Carroll's Alice stories: Alice's Adventures in Wonderland and Through the Looking Glass and What Alice Found There. From Dec. 6, there will be a production of Shakespeare's Hamlet directed by Steven Pimlott. The play features Samuel West, who has recently collaborated with Pimlott in an acclaimed production of Richard II, making his main stage debut in the title role.

Shakespeare's Julius Caesar, directed by Edward Hall, will open on Jan. 24, 2002. Tim Pigott-Smith plays Cassius in this story of political greed and personal ambition and the stirring of a bloody civil war.

Lindsay Posner will direct Twelfth Night from Dec. 18. Edwardian England is the inspiration behind the setting for Posner's production of Shakespeare's witty comedy of love and lovers.

At The Barbican (The Pit):

King John, directed by Gregory Doran, opens on Dec. 6. Guy Henry plays King John who, with increasingly crazed desperation, fights against France and then against his own countrymen, in order to secure his throne.

The Lieutenant of Inishmore opens on Dec. 20, with Wilson Milam directing the world premiere of this second play in Martin McDonagh's Aran Isles Trilogy. A wicked black comedy on the subjects of Irish paramilitaries, extreme violence, guns and cats, The Lieutenant of Inishmore is at once shocking and farcical, yet devastating in its dissection of The Troubles.

Night of the Soul, a play written and directed by David Farr, will open on April 18, 2002. The night before his father's funeral, a forty year old market researcher stays at a smart modern hotel where he sees the ghost of a young woman.

Michael Attenborough directs David Edgar's play The Prisoner's Dilemma, opening on Jan. 24, 2002. A bloody conflict on Europe's eastern border is escalating, while every urgent effort is made behind closed doors to find peace. Edgar's play moves back and forth between the drama of the negotiating table and the theatre of war.

Robert Delamere directs Peter Whelan's A Russian in the Woods, opening on Feb. 28, 2002. In the atmosphere of post-war liberation, an English Sergeant is given charge of an army outpost haunted by the grave of dead soldiers. He invites in an American GI - and ends up embroiled in a cold war drama with his conscience on trial.

At the Lyric Hammersmith:

Opening on Feb. 22, 2002, is Heinrich von Kleist's play The Prince of Homburg, in a new version by Neil Bartlett, who also directs. The night before he leads his troops into battle, the Prince of Homburg strips off his uniform and sleepwalks, with his mind racing through fantasies of love, ambition and victory. In the morning, a single act of disobedience sets off a chain of events that leads to the one thing he never dreamt would happen.

At Sadler's Wells:

The Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe opens on Dec. 6, 2001, and is currently booking. The RSC's hit family production of CS Lewis' classic children's story returns to Sadler's Wells this winter. Originally staged at the Royal Shakespeare Theatre in 1998 dirrected by Adrian Noble. The revival is directed by Lucy Pitman-Wallace.

The Barbican Box Office is 020 7638 8891.

—by Theatrenow