World Shakespeare Festival announced for 2012.

The World Shakespeare Festival (WSF) is a celebration of Shakespeare as the world' s playwright, produced by the Royal Shakespeare Company, in a collaboration with leading UK and international arts organisations, and with Globe to Globe, a major international programme produced by Shakespeare's Globe. It runs from 23 April to November 2012 and forms part of London 2012 Festival, which is the culmination of the Cultural Olympiad, bringing leading artists from all over the world together in a UK-wide festival in the summer of 2012.

Thousands of artists and over 50 arts organisations have come together to take part in the Festival. Over a million tickets go on public sale from 10 October for close to 70 productions, plus events and exhibitions across the UK, including London, Stratford-upon-Avon, Newcastle/Gateshead, Birmingham, Brighton, Wales and Scotland as well as online.

World Shakespeare Festival productions in London include:

What Country Friends Is This? - migration, exile, shipwreck and brave new worlds explored by a single company through RSC productions of The Comedy of Errors, The Tempest, Twelfth Night, directed by David Farr and Palestinian director, Amir Nizar Zuabi, and, in London, a site-specific Pericles, directed by Michael Boyd, supported by BP (Stratford-upon-Avon and London'aRoundhouse).

Globe to Globe – 37 of Shakespeare's plays in 37 different languages, over the course of six weeks. Produced by Tom Bird for Shakespeare's Globe.

Timon of Athens – Nicholas Hytner directs Simon Russell Beale at the National Theatre.

King Lear – Michael Attenborough directs Jonathan Pryce at the Almeida Theatre.

Romeo and Juliet in Baghdad – the Iraqi Theatre Company explores Iraq's rich traditions of poetry, music and ritual across a sectarian divide (Stratford-upon-Avon and London's Riverside Studios – in Arabic with English surtitles).

Two Roses for Richard III – Brazil's Compannhia Bufo Mecanica creates a grand spectacle of circus and theatre inspired by Shakespeare's Histories (Stratford-upon-Avon and London's Roundhouse – in Portuguese with English ssurtitles).

Julius Caesar – Gregory Dorran's production finds dark contemporary echoes in sub-Saharan Africa (Stratford-upon-Avon, London's Roundhouse, Theatre Royal Newcastle).

Desdemona – a collaboration between the acclaimed Toni Morrison, Malian singer/songwriter Rokia Traor and Peter Sellars at the Barbican.

Cymbeline – directed by Japan's leading classical director Yukkio Ninagawa at the Barbican (in Japanese with English surtitles).

The Dark Side of Love – a dreamlike journey into the depths of what we do for love, performed by teenagers in an atmospheric space beneath the Roundhouse, in London.

Macbeth: Leila and Ben – A Bloody History – Artistes, Producteurs, Associes from Tunisia combine Shakespeare with film and reportage (LIFT at London's Riverside Studios, Northern Stage – in Arabic with English surtitles).

The Rest is Silence – dreamthinkspeak's meditation on Hamlet performmed within a large-scale installation (LIFT at Riverside Studios, Brighton Festival, Northern Stage)