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.
After several unique shows based on Shakespeare’s plays, 123 Schtunk now makes a production about the man himself. Who was the man who wrote those fascinating plays? Where was he from? Where did he go? Many questions, few answers. 123Schtunk presents the absolute truth about Shakespeare, his theatre and his London.
Read MoreSeparated from her twin brother Sebastian after a shipwreck, Viola disguises herself as a boy to serve the Duke of Illyria. Wooing Olivia on his behalf, she is stunned to find herself the object of Olivia's affections. With the arrival of her brother, and a trick played on Olivia's steward, confusion reigns supreme in this classic romantic comedy of mistaken identity, songs, dances and multiple marriages. Twelfth Night is considered Shakespeare's most lyrical as well as experimental play. Piya Behrupiya transposes the action from Illyria to India in the form of a Nautanki and makes Shakespeare's gloriously sunny comedy come alive.
Read MoreWitches curse an actress to play the role of Lady Macbeth over and over again until she gets it just right. Will she be able to conquer madness, Serbians, and enchanted bagpipers long enough to triumph as Shakespeare's most misunderstood heroine?
Read MoreA collaborative project between the University of Leeds (UK) and the University of International Business and Economics (UIBE) (Beijing) to celebrate Shakespeare and Tang Xianzu in 2016, the 400th anniversary of the deaths of two legendary playwrights. The creative team from UIBE performed an adaptation of the magical forest scenes from Shakespeare's play and the team from Leeds performed a contemporary response to Tang Xianzu's _Nanke Ji_.
“Using Shakespeare's classic tale of love and misunderstanding, traditional Chinese theatre techniques, music, humour and contemporary staging, Beijing's ST@UIBE company examines love, gender politics and the changing role of women in contemporary Chinese society.” (description from the Edinburgh Fringe Programme)
Read More“An adaptation of Shakespeare's Timon of Athens. The show comes out of a box: props, costume and instruments. The show utilizes comedy, tragedy, hats and songs to tell one of Shakespeare's least known plays.” (description from the Fringe Programme)
Read More“An improvised Shakespeare play inspired by audience suggestions. Bursting with comedy, love, tragedy, mistaken identity and everything in between, to delight Shakespeare nerds and newbies alike.” --description from Fringe Programme
Read MoreKing Lear is a play about the disintegration of a world where blindness is sight and madness is wisdom. A play that conveys to us explosive revelations on love, power and (individual and social) justice. At the start, Lear believes that power is limitless, and so divides it among his three daughters. But he ends up discovering that suffering is the only thing that is truly limitless, something that deeply strikes nearly all of us, for the pains of the conflict between parents and children are inevitably universal. It is said, and rightly so, that in King Lear certain human wrecks manage to recover their humanity. But that recovery does not imply redemption, it just means that they refuse to accept suffering, torture and death. When Lear enters, bearing Cordelia dead in his arms, someone noticed that even Shakespeare seems to fall silent before this death, and the babblings of a mad old man will have to do as the eulogy of his “loved” yet “forsaken” daughter.
Actor Jorge Pinto is Lear, after having played Claudius in 2002 staging of Hamlet by Ricardo Pais. In the year of the 400th anniversary of Shakespeare’s death, the Ensemble Company returns to an author who writes of a time “when madmen lead the blind,” now in the company of stage director Rogério de Carvalho, another wise and restless master.
Read More“In the Summer of 2016, Athens was a busy place! The tangled knot of four young lovers threatened to unravel the difficult preparations of a royal wedding. Elsewhere, a band of would-be actors planned to create the greatest show the world has ever seen. They all descended into the forest, but little did they know that it wouldn't be only filled with mortal beings this night: the faerie king and queen had their own disputes to resolve!
In this production, Hamlet Isn’t Dead highlighted the lightness and musicality of one of Shakespeare’s most beloved plays. Featuring harmonic renditions of classic and modern tunes and an immersive, playful style, this was one for the ages.” –description from the Hamlet Isn’t Dead website
Read More“Founded in 1989, Hampshire Shakespeare Company is a community of artists dedicated to presenting the works of Shakespeare and promoting theatre in general. Every summer our Shakespeare Under the Stars series offers performances by both our Mainstage company of adults and our Young Company of school-age actors, all at the UMass Center for Renaissance Studies in Amherst.”
Read MoreRomeo & Juliet
Presented in English
Alchemical Theatre Laboratory, New York City, New York, USA
June 27 – 30, 2016
Directed by Inge Crafford-Lazarus
The Cast:
Sam Finn Cutler
Thomas Hedlund
Felix Jones
Omri Kadim
Maggie McMeans
Julia Rehwald
Rebecca Thompson
Yannick Trapman-O'Brien
http://www.thealchemical.com/events-2/ioopuqby42/ROMEO-JULIET
Pericles is a comedy with elements of thriller and adventure, a fairy tale equally relating to children and to adults. When Pericles brings salvation (in form of corn sacks) to Tarsus, there starts a Neapolitan song and dance, with the actors basking in flour and making pastry, resulting in pizza that they actually share with the audience. Gower, the narrator, tells us what will follow and summarises what preceded in witty rhymes and interacts with the actors, sometimes choosing a wrong one for the given role. Like a comedy of humours, with the Tarsus royal couple elegantly mocked and Helicanus, the sage of Tyre, resting on the laurels of his old reputation, senile and pessimistic as ever, not having anything smart to say and actually do his job (advise Pericles). When Thaissa rises from the dead, in Diana’s temple, everybody faints with amazement and then they are impatient to stand up, waiting for Gower’s endless speech to finish and finally kicking him off of the stage. Marina is the torch of the whole play, bright and quick, clever and outspoken, not meek and tender like a typical Shakespearean heroine.
Read More"Join us at Pettygrove Park in downtown Portland as Asae Dean returns to direct Coriolanus, a timely exploration of popular politics. All performances are free to the public, and depend greatly upon free-will audience donations."
Read MoreLady Shakespeare examines Elizabeth I as Shakespeare’s alter-ego. “In this play, I defend the idea that Elizabeth I was the author of many Shakespeare’s plays”, explains Lois Blanco, citing the basis of the play he has written and directed for the 2016 Fringe, in the 400th anniversary of Shakespeare’s death. This solo show is performed by Paula Blanco, a Spanish actress embodying seven different characters: four of Shakespeare’s central female characters, William Shakespeare himself and reigning monarch Elizabeth I.” --description from company website
Read MoreGB Theatre offered classic, open-air family fun at the Bristol Shakespeare Festival with their take on As You Like It, which played in repertory with Romeo and Juliet.
Read MoreThe performance took place at the Cultural Centre del Bosque as a part of global programme of events and activities destined to celebrate William Shakespeare’s work on the occasion of the 400th anniversary of his death. The Mexican adaptation of Measure for Measure preserves the original Shakespearean plot, which brings to life a conflict both passionate and simple in nature, a story line with major consequences, one that exceeds the limits of intimacy and is transformed into a matter of power.
Read More“Wheelhouse set out to break with cliché in tackling Shakespeare’s most iconic love story, mining the polarities of comedy and tragedy, love and hate, through playful ensemble-driven work which lies at the heart of the Wheelhouse approach to theater. Recognizing that the latter half of the play mirrors the first, we set up a great height of comedic joy from which to fall into the depths of tragedy. A tragedy which proves to be the only possible antidote to breaking the cycle of conflict embedded in a divided status quo that feels eerily familiar to our current cultural climate.” –blurb from the Wheelhouse website.
Read More“Shakespeare in Delaware Park is a not-for-profit, professional theatre company dedicated to providing free, high-quality public theatre to the widest possible audience. Our goal is to enrich, inspire and entertain diverse audiences through performance and educational programming, with a focus on the works of William Shakespeare. We are committed to mentoring students and professionals, and offering adults and children opportunities to experience and appreciate live theatre.
Shakespeare in Delaware Park has been a Buffalo summer tradition since 1976. Our spectacular performances take place in a historic park designed by Frederick Law Olmsted, father of landscape architecture. Behind the park’s rose garden stands our grand Tudor-Style stage on a sweeping hill of green. In this beautiful setting under the stars where Shakespeare’s stories live on to explore the truths of the human heart; tragedy, jealousy, foolishness, passion, laughter, and love.” –from the company website
Read MoreIt is the third time Luk Perceval directs Macbeth and every time he chooses a different way of reading and adapting Shakespeare's 'black play'. This production in particular explores the intimate relation between Macbeth and his Lady, the Man and the Woman.
Read More“With William Shakespeare’s 400 anniversary in mind, we’re featuring what many believe to be his earliest play—Two Gentlemen of Verona. See star-crossed lovers, cross-dressing, betrayal, intrigue, clowns, and a real dog! . . . Comedy with a pastiche of romance, melancholy, and a startling conclusion.” –blurb from the festival website
Read MoreThis production relocated King Lear from ancient Britain to the Northern Territory, Australia, thus establishing a thought-provoking link between Lear's disastrous division of his kingdom and land ownership and social reform in Australia, following the first Land Rights Act of 1976. The concern with land was powerfully conveyed by the red sand that covered the vast expanses of the stage of the Barbican theatre. The gigantic road train that towered over the stage was a painful reminder of the environmental and social ravages caused by intensive mining in the region. The exploitation of the land goes against the Aboriginal belief that we do not own the land, but that the land owns us. Another exciting aspect of this production was the blending of Shakespeare's lines with Kriol and other Aboriginal languages which, along with live singing and live music on stage, evoked the soundscape of the Northern Territory.
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This research was supported by the Social Sciences and Humanities Research Council of Canada
