Vanessa Redgrave will take the lead role in Euripides' Hecuba

The company will offer fifty �5 tickets for each of the 150 performances to young people, in a bid to attract under-25 year olds to the theatre.

The season will include Hamlet, Romeo and Juliet, King Lear, Macbeth and Euripides' Hecuba.

The RSC left its previous London home in the Barbican in 2002.

The company transferred none of its plays to London last year because it could not get enough financial backing from producers - the first time it had not had a London season since the 1960s.

Reduced

"It's been my ambition, since I took over at the RSC, for London audiences to enjoy a season of our work and not just those productions that commercial producers are willing to take a risk on," said the RSC's artistic director, Michael Boyd.

"These are not co-productions: this is a six-month RSC season in the West End that proves we're serious again about a regular and sustained presence in the capital," he added.

The RSC is able to commit to a London season this year because the company's finances are now in order, said new executive director, Vikki Heywood.

"In a year we've managed to reduce the Company's deficit from �2.8m to under �250,000," she said.

The company will also offer a number of �15 tickets for each play to key public sector workers, including teachers and nurses, for every matinee performance and Monday evenings.