The biennial Shakespeare Unplugged Festival returns to Bath for three weeks starting on Saturday with fresh interpretations of the Bard's inspirational writing and a wealth of West Country talent.

A packed programme featuring 52 performances, nine new commissions and a new co-production will be staged by acclaimed theatre professionals and local actors, including 450 young people and 45 adults from the Theatre Royal's Engage programme.

Global recognition of William Shakespeare's work will be at an all-time high when his writing becomes a focal point of the 2012 Cultural Olympiad.

But from this Saturday through to Sunday March 4, the work of the Bard will be in the spotlight at the Ustinov Studio and the egg theatre in Bath during three thrilling weeks, featuring Shakespeare's plays, new adaptations, specially commissioned works and fascinating insights into the contemporary relevance of Shakespeare's themes for audiences of all ages but particularly for young people.

The programme features shows inspired by Macbeth, The Tempest, Coriolanus, all of The Kings, Romeo and Juliet, Two Noble Kinsmen, The Rape of Lucrece, Venus and Adonis, The Winter's Tale and Twelfth Night, in an eclectic range of performances for young children, teenagers and adults.

Kate Cross, director of egg theatre and artistic director of Shakespeare Unplugged said: "This year's Shakespeare Unplugged Festival has a distinctly local flavour to it and will be all the better for it, reinventing Shakespeare's canon and making it relevant to South West audiences that the artists know and understand from their own personal experience.

"Local companies such as Cirque Bijou, the egg, Roughhouse Theatre, New Old Friends, Just Enough Theatre and Hammerpuzzle; local seasoned theatre artists such as Chris Harris and Hattie Naylor, and people from the egg's YPT, Engage adult programme and local schools share this programme, this playwright, this platform.

"Yet again – Shakespeare is bringing the old and the young, the experienced and the new, together."

During the festival's opening weekend, the egg theatre presents Much Ado T'Do a free family open day for children of all ages and grown-ups on Sunday, February 12 from 11am to 4pm. Some of the many Shakespeare-inspired events at the Open Day will include Cirque Bijou Trapeze Demonstrations, Shakespearean Dance Workshops, Mask and Ruff Making Workshops, a Shakespeare-inspired Treasure Hunt, Hog Roast and Malmsey, and Backstage Tours.

The Theatre Royal Bath has joined forces with Bristol-based Cirque Bijou to create The Judgement of Macbeth, an intriguing piece of theatre featuring actors, circus and trapeze artists, multi-media techniques and thrilling soundscapes. Inspired by Shakespeare's Macbeth, this brand new, interactive, promenade production is written by award-winning Hattie Naylor and co-directed by Theatre Royal Bath's Lee Lyford and Cirque Bijou's co-founder and Artistic Director Billy Alwen.

Actors Kate Copeland and Joe Marsh join aerialists Nikki Warwick and Richard Durnford and members of the Theatre Royal Bath's Young People's Theatre to perform this unique production created for teenage and adult audiences at the egg theatre from Saturday, February 11 to Tuesday, February 14.

Young audiences can also enjoy a dramatised storytelling of The Tempest by actress Catherine Mallorie on Saturday.

This thoroughly entertaining re-telling of Shakespeare's most magical play will take place at the egg theatre at 11.30am and 3pm.

On Thursday, February 23 at 11am, Catherine Mallorie returns to the egg to present a special Jackanory Live as she introduces pre-school children aged three and four years to Shakespeare's magical isle from The Tempest.

Olivier Award nominee and RSC actor Gerard Logan brings The Rape of Lucrece to the Ustinov Studio for one performance on Wednesday, February 15 at 8pm.

Recommended for older teenagers and adults, this astonishing performance of Shakespeare's brilliant, brutal, narrative poem returns to Bath following a triumphant run at the Edinburgh Festival.

Shakespeare's least known play Two Nobel Kinsmen, will be vividly brought to life by Mast Stage Productions and Just Enough Theatre Company on Friday and Saturday, February 17 and 18. Live music, period songs and contemporary dance theatre complement the lyrical beauty of Shakespeare's poetry and Fletcher's comic interludes, in this staging for audiences aged over 11 years.

Faction Theatre Company performs a visually inventive and boisterous new production of Shakespeare's sparkling comedy, Twelfth Night while Boxed Romeo and Juliet is an imaginative and sensitive adaptation of Shakespeare's famous tragedy and a brand new interpretation of the ultimate teenage love story.

The Theatre Royal Bath's Young People's Theatre presents a host of new productions in the egg theatre during the festival, including a rehearsed reading of an adaptation of Coriolanus by David Lane for audiences aged 14 and over.

During the festival the YPT will transform the entire egg theatre into Prospero's Island for a promenade performance of After the Storm, suitable for audiences aged seven years and over.

Richard III will be staged featuring an arresting soundtrack and urban dance sequences, expect murder and mayhem as Shakespeare's most evil king takes to the stage in this new YPT production, directed by Heidi Vaughan.

The Incubator on February 24 is a showcase of brand new work and scratch performances, will be staged throughout the day and evening at the Ustinov Studio.

Showcasing five new commissions created for Shakespeare Unplugged, the programme includes Battle, a dance performance inspired by Julius Caesar and Antony and Cleopatra which is performed by the YPT; and Emily Taylor's The Nature of the Play focusing on Romeo and Juliet.

The Theatre Royal's Engage adult performance group also play a key role during the festival performing in a range of productions alongside the Theatre's YPT including, Machamlear, a Shakespeare inspired soap opera set in contemporary East London.

A special omnibus edition of this production featuring all four episodes will be staged on Sunday, March 4 at 2pm.

There is also an opportunity to watch each of the individual episodes when they are staged at the egg on Wednesday, February 15, Thursday, February 16, Friday, March 2 and Saturday, March 3 at 7.45pm.

The individual performances of Machamlear will be preceded by Shakespeare's Bit on the Side, devised by the egg's creative learning department and featuring performers of all ages.

A wide variety of Shakespeare-inspired workshops are available during the half term holidays, including Super Sonic Sonnets, a performance poetry workshop; trapeze workshops with Circus Bijou and an MC'ing masterclass. Schools events including the Primary Shakeathon will also feature during the festival.

Tickets are available from the Theatre Royal box office on 01225 448844 or the egg theatre on 01225 823409.