Thank you for visiting our archive. Each performance submitted to our website will be explained in detail in its own blog post. You can choose to look through these posts in a variety of ways.
A takeover of Battersea’s Gallery on the Corner - combining live performance with installation art - to tell the story of Shakespeare’s infamous She-Wolf of France. The text is pieced together from the War of the Roses tetralogy, with some additional new writing.
Read MoreGlenda Jackson takes on the role of King Lear in this much-awaited production of the tragedy at London’s Old Vic. It comes 25 years after Jackson’s decision to give up acting for politics.
Read MoreLear has dementia. His children never visit him. He forbids it, ever since they betrayed him and he disowned them many years ago. So what happens when Cordelia - his youngest, whose betrayal was the greatest - knocks on his door? Why has she come back? What's her story? And is there any chance of reconciliation?
Lear/Cordelia is an experimental double-bill: a radical reworking of Shakespeare's King Lear followed by Cordelia, a new play from the perspective of Lear's youngest daughter.
Digital projection-mapping combines with Shakespeare and new writing to open up the emotional landscapes of a man with dementia and the woman who tries to reconnect with him.
Lear/Cordelia pilot production is based on our research-and-development project that explored King Lear in the context of dementia through participatory research.
Read MoreBedouin Shakespeare Company’s production of The Tempest aims to make Shakespeare’s play accessible and entertaining to an audience largely composed of students. The production, characterized by spare staging, emphasized the comic and magical dimensions of The Tempest, the third Shakespeare production the company has brought to the UAE since 2012.
Read MoreCole Porter's popular Kiss Me Kate, a musical based on Shakespeare's The Taming of the Shrew was part of the Welsh National Opera's autumn Shakespeare400 Season. WNO Artistic Director David Pountney said ‘It's a marvellous opportunity for us to bring together enormously varied works which Shakespeare’s works have inspired.’
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An epic double family drama about mothers and daughters, fathers and sons. In Willmott’s production Lear, a Queen with failing mental faculties, finds it impossible to retire gracefully and is cast out by her eldest daughters. Meanwhile the Duke of Gloucester's ruthless son plots to steal his brother's inheritance.
Read MoreThe UK Premiere of pianist and composer André Tchaikowsky's opera based on Shakespeare's Merchant of Venice. The opera is a potent attack on prejudice, a deeply personal response to Tchaikowsky's experiences as a child in the Warsaw Ghetto, that was unperformed for three decades before David Pountney commissioned performances at the Bregenz Festival in Austria. The Welsh National Opera production was part of the Welsh National Opera's autumn Shakespeare400 Season. WNO Artistic Director Pountney said “It's a marvellous opportunity for us to bring together enormously varied works which Shakespeare’s works have inspired.”
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Billed as Britain's first all-black Hamlet, Black Theatre Live's production was set in Denmark, a Black Empire of modern England, where an intelligent young student discovers the world he once knew has crumbled. Dramaturg Mark Norfolk used Peter Brook's stripped back Hamlet as his textual blueprint to get to the heart of the play, expanding it with new text to better explore both Hamlet and the play's female characters.
Read MoreVerdi described Macbeth as 'one of mankind's greatest creations'. His opera based on the play was part of the Welsh National Opera's autumn Shakespeare400 Season. WNO Artistic Director David Pountney said ‘It's a marvellous opportunity for us to bring together enormously varied works which Shakespeare’s works have inspired.’
Read More“For the 400th anniversary year of the death of William Shakespeare, we present diverse settings of his words from a range of composers in the atmospheric setting of Canongate Kirk”-- description from Fringe programme
Read More“China Anhui Opera Institute is proud to present A Terrified Soul, an exciting new adaptation of Macbeth. An eclectic fusion of contemporary and classical Chinese opera elements.” (description from the Fringe Programme)
Read More“Breaking… Shakespeare's alive! First ever interview. If Shakespeare were living and writing today, who would he be? A genius, an outsider, or just plain Bill? The Bard is very much alive and kicking, Hamlet's just opened (to mixed reviews!) and Will’s in the hot seat. Finally, we ask the questions that have kept us all guessing: Are these plays really his? Why the tragedies? What happened with Anne? Second guest: Sir Francis Bacon, Shakespeare's arch-rival. To be or not to be…? The answer’s not on Google. Festival premiere after hit run down under! 'Fantastic!' (James Valentine, ABC Sydney).” (description from the Fringe Programme)
Read More“England. 1918. A generation of men obliterated by the futility of war. Shakespeare's battle of wits set against the devastating backdrop of a country in mourning.” –description from the Fringe Programme
Read More“Mad world! Mad kings! Mad composition! MCS Drama presents a brand new adaptation of King John, one of the least performed but most politically cutting and gravely comic of Shakespeare's history plays.” --description from Fringe programme. The performance was an abridged version of Shakespeare's play, and was also performed at Magdalen College School, Oxford.
Read More“Hamlet… and Ophelia. Cambridge University presents Shakespeare's most popular tragedy in 80 minutes. No diversion, no distraction. Witness the events unfurl before your eyes. Stripped to its roots, experience the truth of Shakespeare's play” --description from Fringe Programme
Read More“King Lear has ruled for many years. As age begins to overtake him, he decides to divide his kingdom amongst his children, living out his days without the burden of power.
A proud man, he allows vanity to cloud his judgment, believing that he can relinquish the crown, but enjoy the same authority and respect he has always known. Misjudging his children’s loyalty he soon finds himself stripped of all the trappings of state, wealth and power he had taken for granted. Alone in the wilderness he is left to confront the mistakes of a life that has brought him to this point."
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“This adaptation of Macbeth is told by Hecate, the goddess of crossroads, from her point of view. An unusual yet classical version of Shakespeare, performed by a single player.
(description from the Fringe Programme)
“Shakespeare smashes Homer's grand legend of the Trojan War while the unrivalled gallery of stars - Achilles, Agamemnon and Helen - lust and manipulate general destruction. Comedy, tragedy, history, satire, political danger at its most chilling.” –description from the Fringe programme
Read More“Six young cosplayers' friendships are tested as they prepare for an anime convention's scene contest from Madsummer! - a modern-day anime Midsummer Night's Dream. A comedy about finding your tribe and chasing your own mad dreams.” (description from Fringe Programme)
Read More“A stark, stylised performance of boundless ambition and the destruction it ultimately wreaks. Three actors, accompanied by a live DJ set and dynamic projections, create a dark and potent visual language. "Remarkable, essential viewing" (Herald).” --description from Fringe Programme.
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This research was supported by the Social Sciences and Humanities Research Council of Canada
