Richard, Duke of Gloucester. Boris Johnson. Ambitious, manipulative, ruthless men, scheming to reach the height of power.
This retelling of one of Shakespeare’s most popular history plays does away with duels, grandly dressed nobles and pitched battles, taking us instead to the current seat of power in the United Kingdom: Westminster.
The green benches and corridors buzz with betrayal, deception and plots as our protagonist tries to clear the obstacles blocking his route to the ultimate prize – and then to cling desperately to his position.
Combining a modern political setting with innovative technical elements and Shakespeare’s timeless prose, this fresh production will tell the old story of Richard III in a new way, connecting with those seeing the story for the first time and delighting abiding fans.
How does a war hero become a tyrant? Shakespeare’s powerful drama charts the rise and fall of a couple, who, driven by a prophecy, become intoxicated by the possibilities of power, and find themselves crossing a line from which there is no turning back.
Join the Dulwich Players in the Great Hall at Kingswood Arts, which will provide an atmospheric and intimate setting for this gripping tale of grief, greed, superstition and murder…
This summer, award-winning local theatre company Shakespeare at The George (SaTG) will be transforming the atmospheric Jacobean Courtyard at The George Hotel in Huntingdon into a sun-dappled Tuscan Villa for its much-anticipated production of one of Shakespeare’s most brilliant and sparkling comedies.
Much Ado About Nothing, set in Renaissance Italy, will be a melting pot of undiscovered love, courtship, treachery, deceit, gallantry and honour; spiced up with verbal jousting, social-climbing and general buffoonery.
This year’s show includes two performances designed to help make live theatre more accessible for the hard of hearing and partially sighted communities.
Generously supported by The Evelyn Glennie Foundation, the performance on Tuesday 4 July will be captioned to help those who are losing or have lost their hearing. Grammy award-wining Dame Evelyn Glennie created and sustained a career as the first full-time solo percussionist in the world, despite her loss of hearing at the age of eight, so the partnership means a lot to her.
“As a huge fan of Shakespeare at The George, I am delighted that The Evelyn Glennie Foundation is supporting the close-captioning of Much Ado About Nothing. The productions that this theatre company provide are superb. The close-captions are a vital part to these productions; they are simply and unobtrusively done and have shown to be of enormous benefit to many in attendance. Shakespeare at The George is determined to make their productions as inclusive as possible to all people of all ages. It is an honour for The Evelyn Glennie Foundation to be associated with such a valued organization. Long may these wonderful productions continue!”
In addition, for the first time this year SaTG will be providing a Touch Tour prior to the show on Monday 3 July to help make the play more accessible and enjoyable for blind and partially sighted theatre fans. Belinda Yare, trustee of Huntingdon Society For The Blind, explained the value that this would add.
“Thanks to the addition of. Touch Tour this year, our members with a range of vision impairments will be able to experience and enjoy live theatre in a much more inclusive way. This invaluable access to the performance arts, which some members may never have had experience of before, enriches the lives of those for whom sometimes the world is a much smaller place.”
The production, sponsored by Urban & Civic, runs from Tuesday 27 June to Saturday 8 July are on sale now at www.satg.org.uk/tickets.
This February Midland Players, are back on stage with the premiere of a newly published play which reimagines one of Shakespeare’s most well-known works.
Writing to please his patron, Elizabeth I, and relying on sources which supported the Tudor portrayal of Richard III as a usurper of the throne of England and mass murdering tyrant, Shakespeare crafted one of the most monstrous villains of literature – a physically deformed fiend that came to supplant the Richard of history! How different might that play be if Shakespeare wrote it today, with access to all the historical information now available, and at no risk of losing his head? That is the question which Crookback – Shakespeare’s ‘Richard III’ Rebooted seeks to answer.
With updated language, and the long boring bits removed (!), ‘Crookback’ is Shakespeare for people who think they don’t like Shakespeare, and even though this version of ‘Richard III’ may be missing a hunchback, audiences can expect duplicitous rogues plotting to seize the throne, doomed romance, rolling heads, and dark comedy!
This great show runs from Weds. 15th to Sat. 18th Feb. at Sheffield University Drama Studio, Shearwood Road, S10 2TD,
The oldest love story in the world stripped back in an emotionally raw version. Modern and other – worldly this show seeks to dispel the negative “overdone”, “men in tights” rumours about the play.
An age -old vendetta between two powerful families erupts into bloodshed. The Montagues risk conflict by gate -crashing a Capulet party. A lovesick Romeo Montague falls in love with Juliet Capulet. With the help of Juliet’s nurse, the women arrange for the couple to marry but Romeo’s attempt to halt a street fight leads to the death of Juliet’s cousin, Tybalt (for which Romeo is banished). In an attempt to be reunited with Romeo, Juliet follows the Friar’s plot and fakes her own death. The message fails to reach Romeo and, believing Juliet dead, he takes his life in her tomb.
Juliet wakes to find Romeo’s corpse beside her and kills herself. The grieving family agree to end their feud.
A NEW SIX-CHARACTER VERSION OF THE RENOWNED SHAKESPEARE PLAY
ADAPTED & DIRECTED BY THE MULTI AWARD-WINNING BILL ALEXANDER
Mary Chater, Alexander Knox, John McAndrew, Lena Robin, Peter Tate and Alex Wilson will star in Shakespeare in Italy’s new six-character version of one of William Shakespeare’s most notable and controversial tales, The Merchant of Venice.
Bill Alexander, the critically acclaimed and award-winning Shakespearian director, well known for his tenures at the RSC and Birmingham Rep, and his Best Director Olivier Award for The Merry Wives of Windsor, has created and will direct this all-new modern-day adaptation, entitled A Merchant of Venice.
Bill’s adaptation focuses on the tortured nature of love at the inner core of Shakespeare’s play, and features set and costume designs by Sara Perks, lighting by Ryan Day and sound by Sarah Sayeed.
The production runs at The Playground Theatre from 10 November – 4 December 2021, with press night on Monday 15 November.
Bill Alexander, adaptor and director of A Merchant of Venice said, “One can get obsessed with a particular work of art and I confess that obsession is the only way to describe my relationship to The Merchant of Venice.
I have directed it twice professionally, twice at drama schools, and taught and lectured on it often. When working on select scenes, it began to occur to me that there was an inner play about a small network of relationships that was the core of the bigger play that wrestles with huge themes of Justice and Mercy, Marriage and Money, Race and Class, and it is this inner core, essentially about the tortured nature of Love, that my production for Shakespeare in Italy at The Playground Theatre will focus on.
My version of the play, entitled A Merchant of Venice, focuses on just six key characters whose entangled loves, desires and fortunes hinge on a better understanding of themselves and their relation to each other in the blackly comic world of a modern Venice, the sublime and terrible Serenissima.”
Shakespeare in Italy is keen to take the works of Shakespeare to new audiences in exciting and interesting ways. Parallel to this production is its Outreach Programme for Schools sponsored by BMH Associates Limited. Working with students at The St Marylebone CofE School, who are studying The Merchant of Venice, Shakespeare in Italy hopes to enrich their understanding of the play via a series of energetic and interactive workshops with members of the cast and visits to see the performance.
