Productions include a modern-dress staging of Hamlet, along with Twelfth Night, Julius Caesar, Martin McDonagh's The Lieutenant of Inishmore and William Wycherley's Restoration comedy, Love in a Wood. Stratford-upon-Avon, England; through Oct. 13; www.rsc.org.uk

Shakespeare had the Globe. Alan Ayckbourn has the Stephen Joseph, which will stage his two new plays, the 58th and 59th of his career, Game Plan and Flat Spin, throughout the summer. Scarborough, England. www.sjt.uk.com

This highly acclaimed Japanese theater company, starring the legendary Nakamura Ganjiro III, wraps up a brief tour of the West with four performances in the greater Manchester area. The Lowry, Salford Quays, England;

As part of the Third Theater Olympics, this classic play, directed by Luc Bondy, gets an appropriate staging at Moscow's Chekhov Art Theater on June 27, 28.

The American playwright Sam Shepard receives his third Donmar Warehouse production, this time with a revival of his 1985 play staged by Chicago director Wilson Milam. London. June 28-Sept. 1. www.donmar-warehouse.com

Last chance to catch Joe Orton's Loot is June 23. Feydeau's entertaining farce, The Fall Guy, runs June 27-Aug. 11. Manchester, England. www.royalexchange.co.uk

Nearly 100 years after its premiere at this same venue, J.M. Synge's The Playboy of the Western World returns for a run from July 10 to Aug. 11. A highly anticipated revival of Brian Friel's Translations opens on Aug. 1. Dublin. www.abbeytheatre.ie

Harold Pinter, who turns 70 in October, returns to the stage — this time as an actor — in Dublin's Gate Theatre production of his 1984 play. New Ambassadors Theatre, London; July 3-7.

The Dane has sex appeal — the prince poses naked on the play's posters — in this Polish production (with French subtitles) directed by Krzysztof Warlikowski at the Avignon Festival July 17-20. Avignon, France. www.festival-avignon.com

Revivals of plays by Tom Stoppard (On the Razzle), David Storey (In Celebration) and David Hare (The Secret Rapture) run throughout the summer, but a highlight of this year's festival should be Brian Friel's translation of Chekhov's Three Sisters, starring Janie Dee, opening on Aug. 25. www.cft.org.uk

Julie Taymor (The Lion King) creates the life-size puppetry, masks, costumes and movement for this American Repertory Theatre production based on the legend of the King of Serendippo and his search for a wife. Directed by Andrei Serban. Barbican Centre, London; Aug. 15-Sept. 2. www.barbican.org.uk

The first major revival of this 1939 play (with a score by Benjamin Britten and starring Patrick Stewart) kicks off a season devoted to the work of writer J.B. Priestley. West Yorkshire Playhouse, Leeds, England; Aug. 29-Sept. 29. www.wyp.co.uk

Last summer's unlikely theater hit was Further Than the Furthest Thing by then-unknown Zinnie Harris, so it's hard to predict what will emerge from Edinburgh as this year's hot ticket. But the world theater premiere on Aug. 30 of John Cage's radio play Marcel Duchamp, James Joyce, Erik Satie: An Alphabet is promising. Also on tap: Tom Murphy's Too Late for Logic, which opens on Aug. 13, and Luc Bondy's production of The Seagull, coming to Edinburgh on Aug. 29. www.eif.co.uk