Sir Patrick Stewart is heading back to the Royal Shakespeare Company to play Shylock in the bard's "The Merchant of Venice" this spring. With over 60 RSC productions under his belt, Sir Patrick will be reuniting with director Rupert Goold for the production as a part the RSC's 50th birthday season. The play will run from May 19th to September 26th 2011 and preview on May 13th.

According to Whatsonstage.com; Goold and Stewart previously worked together on the RSC’s 2006 production of The Tempest, which transferred to the West End, and most famously, on the multi award-winning 2007 Chichester production of Macbeth, which transferred to the West End and Broadway and was subsequently filmed. Following Macbeth, Stewart returned to the RSC in 2009 to play Claudius to David Tennant’s Hamlet, which also transferred to the West End and which won Stewart both Olivier and Whatsonstage.com Awards for Best Supporting Actor.

Also recently announced, Sir Patrick will be reprising his role as an aging Shakespeare in the 1973 Edward Bond’s play "Bingo", next year. Set to debut at the Young Vic in London, the play will run from February 23rd to March 31st 2012 and preivew on February 16th.

Bingo depicts Shakespeare in the last days of his life - ageing, facing poverty and lacking creative energy, until his poetry is suddenly once again unleashed by the catastrophic circumstances he faces.

(Source Whatsonstage.com)