The new resident theatre company at the Young Vic has announced its first repertory season. Running May through July 1998, the Company will present new productions of Shakespeare's Twelfth Night (14 May - 25 July) and As I Lay Dying (22 May - 21 July) by William Faulkner, winner of the Nobel Prize for Literature.

The 1998 repertory season is the next stage of continuing artistic development under director Tim Supple, and re-establishes a system not seen at the Young Vic since 1979. The two new shows follow the company's first production at the Young Vic, the Christmas 1997 collection of folk stories More Grimm Tales.

Twelfth Night marks Supple's return to Shakespeare following his acclaimed RSC production The Comedy of Errors which opened at The Other Place in Stratford before a national and international tour and London engagement at the Young Vic.

As I Lay Dying, based on Faulkner's classic novel, is presented on the London stage for the first time since Peter Gill's 1985 National Theatre production. It tells the story of an epic journey undertaken by a family who travels across the Deep South of 1930s America to fulfil their mother's dying wish. It is adapted by Edward Kemp whose recent controversial adaptation of The Mysteries was directed by Katie Mitchell for the RSC's 1997 season.

The new Resident Young Vic Theatre Company repertory season has been made possible by the country's fourth highest National Lottery Arts for Everyone grant, awarded in September 1997. The grant will support a programme of enhanced activity at the Young Vic through to 2001. The Young Vic was established in 1970 with a special pupose to tell stories and create events that embrace young people, children and adults in one experience. For further information, contact the Young Vic box office on +44-171-928-6363..com">What's On Stage, London

--By Terri Paddock