The Royal Shakespeare Company has announced that Ghosts star Mathew Baynton will play Bottom in a new production of A Midsummer Night's Dream.

Directed by Eleanor Rhode, the show will run in the Royal Shakespeare Theatre in Stratford-upon-Avon between Tuesday 30th January and Saturday 30th March.

Baynton will be making his RSC debut next year when he takes on Bottom, one of Shakespeare's most well-known comic characters. On Midsummer's Night, the real and fairy worlds collide. Four young lovers, faced with the prospect of unhappy marriage or worse, flee the court of Athens and stumble into an enchanted forest. Nearby, a group of amateur actors rehearse a play to celebrate an upcoming royal wedding. As these mere mortals cross paths with a warring fairy King and Queen, chaos reigns in the natural world. The lines between reality and illusion start to blur and no-one but mischievous Puck knows what is true and what is magic.

Baynton says: "I really couldn't be more excited to be joining the cast of A Midsummer Night's Dream at the RSC. I've always wanted to be part of a Shakespeare production and I've been hoping to return to the stage for quite some time too, so to be able to combine those two ambitions in one of the great ensemble comedies is a (midsummer night's) dream come true! Eleanor's vision for the production sounds magical and Bottom is, of course, an absolute treat of a role, so I can't wait to get started."

Eleanor Rhode comments: "I'm thrilled to be returning to the RSC to direct A Midsummer Night's Dream. It's a play that made a big impact on me from a young age, and I'm excited to share it with a new generation of theatre-goers. Mathew Baynton is going to be an incredible Bottom - I've loved his work for years, and so it's a real joy to be able to collaborate with him on bringing this magical play to life."