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oak up the genius of Shakespeare and release your inner thespian with the World Shakespeare Festival, an unprecedented celebration of the much-loved Tudor playwright. Part of the London 2012 Festival, the year-long event will showcase England’s greatest bard through a variety of art forms and cultural interpretations.

The all-encompassing programme of events kicks off in March with a contemporary production of Twelfth Night at the Royal Shakespeare Theatre in Stratford-upon-Avon, Shakespeare’s birthplace and a Warwickshire town famous for its pristine Tudor buildings.

Along with old favourites like King Lear, directed by Michael Attenborough, and the epic tale of Julius Caesar at the Theatre Royal in Newcastle Upon Tyne, the festival will showcase a huge cast of new productions inspired by the works of Shakespeare. We can’t wait to see the Brazilian production Two Roses for Richard III at the Roundhouse, a visual spectacle that re-imagines the bloody saga of the War of the Roses with high-energy circus and carnival performances.

Once you’ve had your fill of comedies, tragedies, political thrillers and booed the likes of Iago and Lady Macbeth, head away from the spotlights to immerse yourself in more Shakespeare. The British Museum will host Shakespeare: Staging the World, a major exhibition presented in collaboration with the Royal Shakespeare Company. Witness life as Shakespeare lived it, with drawings, maps, precious coins, armour and other weird and wonderful Tudor objects.