Selected Works: Table Top Shakespeare
ABOUT THE SHOW
A salt and pepper pot for the king and queen. A vase for the prince. A matchbox for the servant. A toilet roll tube for the innkeeper. A water bottle for the messenger. Welcome to Table Top Shakespeare from the highly acclaimed theatre company, Forced Entertainment, celebrated worldwide for their groundbreaking and innovative productions.
In a brand new direction for the group, Complete Works: Table Top Shakespeare explores the dynamic force of narrative in relation to Shakespeare’s comedies, tragedies, histories and late plays. What follows is simple and idiosyncratic, absurd and strangely compelling as, through a kind of lo-fi, home-made puppetry, the stories of the plays really do come to life in vivid miniature.
During the festival, you can attend one to all twelve of the selected plays of Shakespeare. The actors will each perform a condensed and intimate retelling, using a collection of everyday objects as stand-ins for the characters, all on an ordinary tabletop. This gently comical re-casting, featuring objects from the kitchen cabinet and grocery store shelves, will capture your imagination as familiar tales come to life in completely unique, slightly absurd, and strangely compelling ways.
ABOUT THE COMPANY
Forced Entertainment is a Sheffield-based theatre company founded in 1984. Touring and presenting their ground-breaking provocative performances across the UK, Europe, and the rest of the world, the group have sustained a unique collaborative practice for more than thirty years, producing work that explores and often explodes the conventions of genre, narrative and theatre itself, drawing influence not just from drama but from dance, performance art, music culture and popular forms such as cabaret and stand-up.
In 2016 Forced Entertainment won the International Ibsen Award for their unique and celebrated contribution to the field of contemporary theatre and performance.
Forced Entertainment have long had an obsession with virtual or described performance, exploring in different ways over the years the possibilities of conjuring extraordinary scenes, images and stories using language alone. In a brand new direction for the group, Complete Works: Table Top Shakespeare explores the dynamic force of narrative in relation to Shakespeare’s comedies, tragedies, histories and late plays. What follows is simple and idiosyncratic, absurd and strangely compelling as, through a kind of lo-fi, home-made puppetry, the stories of the plays really do come to life in vivid miniature.
Forced Entertainment’s Complete Works is the first time they’ve approached dramatic literature and the Shakespearean legacy. The result is a kind of levelling of the plays – a gently comic re-casting of them via objects from the kitchen cabinet and grocery store shelves – as well as a celebration of their power as stories, and the act of storytelling and theatre itself.
CREATIVE CREDITS
Conceived and devised by Forced Entertainment
Performers: Jerry Killick, Richard Lowdon, Claire Marshall and Cathy Naden
Director: Tim Etchells
Text: Robin Arthur, Tim Etchells, Jerry Killick, Richard Lowdon, Claire Marshall, Cathy Naden and Terry O’Connor.
Design: Richard Lowdon
Sound & Lighting Design: Jim Harrison
Production Management: Jim Harrison
Producer: Eileen Evans