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Date published: 4/1/2006

By MARY ELLEN BOTTERTHE DALLAS MORNING NEWS

Hamlet proclaimed, "The play's the thing."

The Royal Shakespeare Company will prove that's true.

The troupe is sponsoring a yearlong festival at Stratford-upon-Avon, William Shakespeare's hometown, at which all of the Bard's 37 plays plus his sonnets and long poems will be performed.

It will be the first time that all of the works will be presented in a single event.

The festival will open on Shakespeare's birthday, April 23, and continue into April 2007.

The Royal Shakespeare Company will present 23 shows. The theatrical feast will continue with 17 international productions and 14 by U.K.-based visiting companies.

Among the more unusual programs will be "Hamlet" performed by inch-tall plastic ninja figurines of the Tiny Ninja Theater of New York.

Also, several productions will be in foreign languages with subtitles.

In October, a temporary 100-seat mini-theater within the Royal Shakespeare Theatre auditorium will host such shows as "Rough Magyck," which uses film, puppets and cartoons to explore the supernatural in Shakespeare's works.

The hottest tickets, however, may be for Shakespeare's most memorable plays starring noted actors. These include Patrick Stewart and Harriet Walter in "Antony and Cleopatra," Ian McKellen in "King Lear" and Judi Dench in an adaptation of "The Merry Wives of Windsor."

Along with classic productions will be stagings downsized for children, a series of free outdoor films, live music and discussions of issues raised in Shakespeare's works, from sex to the spiritual.

Shakespeare (1564-1616) was a successful actor and star playwright during the highly competitive Elizabethan era of the theater.

His inventive works include rich and evocative phrases that found life beyond the theater. They include "To be, or not to be," "All the world's a stage," "He hath eaten me out of house and home" and "Parting is such sweet sorrow."

The plays and programs will be presented at several sites in Stratford, which is northwest of London on the northern edge of the Cotswolds.

Ticket sales have begun. Contact: 011-44-870-609-1110; rsccom pleteworks.co.uk. For touring information: 888/847-4885; visit britain.com. Rail information: 866/274-8724; britrail.com.

Date published: 4/1/2006