Hall is the son of RSC founder Sir Peter Hall

He said Mr Hall, son of the founder Sir Peter Hall, left over "artistic differences on the casting front".

Mr Doran also denied reports citing insiders who said Mr Hall opposed plans to rehearse the play in three weeks rather than the usual six.

The production is part of a series of five Jacobean plays which will all be developed in this way.

The "stir-fry mentality" was "closer to the experience of Shakespeare's companies" and was embraced by all the directors and actors with "exhilaration and delight", Mr Doran said.

The RSC has seen several resignations since its artistic director Adrian Noble announced a radical overhaul in May last year.

This has prompted speculation that the revamp has left the organisation in turmoil.

'New vision'

It included plans to raze the 1930s Royal Shakespeare Theatre in Stratford-Upon-Avon and replace it with a "waterfront theatre village", to scale down operations at the RSC's long-time home, the Barbican theatre, and to stage plays in other locations.

Technical staff have threatened to strike over feared redundancies resulting from the changes.

A former artistic director of the RSC, Terry Hands, who resigned from an advisory role in November 2001, "did not agree" with the new vision, the company has said.

But former RSC governor, Sir John Mortimer, stepped down because he had not been taking an active role and wanted to allow someone who was able to be more involved take the position, a spokeswoman said.

And the company says that David Hunt, another young director who pulled out of the Jacobean series, did so because of ill health.