Forced Entertainment

»A salt and pepper pot for the king and queen. A ruler for the prince. A spoon for the servant. Lighter fluid for the Innkeeper. A water bottle for the messenger.«

36 plays in 36 nights. The idea behind ›Complete works: Table Top Shakespeare‹, with which Forced Entertainment has delighted over 35,000 people in 12 countries since its premiere in 2015, is as simple as it is ingenious. Six performers bring every play ever written by Shakespeare to life using only a collection of ordinary everyday objects as stand-ins for the characters on the one metre stage of a table top.

Fast-forwarding to 2020 and the Coronavirus epidemic, especially with its necessities of social distancing, lockdowns and quarantines, Forced Entertainment find themselves at home, like much of the rest of the world and are set to restage the project online in ›Complete Works: Table Top Shakespeare: At Home‹.

For 36 nights, spread out over 9 weeks from 17th September, PACT will be broadcasting the plays direct from the kitchen tables of the performers, each of them currently isolated in different places including Sheffield, London and Berlin. Each play will be preceded by a short performer introduction.

Post-Show Discussions: Each Sunday the performers from that week will host a Zoom Q&A. To register simply email feaftertalks@gmail.com with the date of the post-show discussion you'd like to join.

The project has always been about the collision of these great significant Shakespearean dramas and the everyday world – presenting them from the domestic space of the performers really opens up and emphasises that element, underscoring the informality and personal approach that’s inherent in the project.

Making Of

Learn more about the idea behind ›Complete Works: Table Top Shakespeare: At Home‹ in this Making Of.

Overview of all the plays

Week 117/09 Macbeth Richard Lowdon18/09 Pericles Cathy Naden19/09 The Merchant of Venice Claire Marshall20/09 A Midsummer Night’s Dream Jerry Killick + Post Show Discussion

Week 224/09 Romeo and Juliet Terry O’Connor25/09 King John Cathy Naden26/09 Titus Andronicus Robin Arthur27/09 Much Ado About Nothing Richard Lowdon + Post Show Discussion

Week 301/10 Hamlet Terry O’Connor02/10 Love’s Labours Lost Robin Arthur03/10 The Winter’s Tale Cathy Naden04/10 All’s Well That Ends Well Claire Marshall + Post Show Discussion

Week 408/10 Richard II Terry O’Connor09/10 Henry IV Part 1 Jerry Killick10/10 Henry IV Part 2 Jerry Killick11/10 Henry V Claire Marshall + Post Show Discussion

Week 515/10 Henry VI Part 1 Richard Lowdon16/10 Henry VI Part 2 Richard Lowdon17/10 Henry VI Part 3 Richard Lowdon18/10 Richard III Claire Marshall + Post Show Discussion

Week 622/10 Measure for Measure Cathy Naden23/10 Coriolanus Jerry Killick24/10 The Merry Wives of Windsor Terry O’Connor25/10 King Lear Robin Arthur + Post Show Discussion

Week 729/10 Twelfth Night Jerry Killick30/10 Cymbeline Terry O’Connor31/10 Julius Caesar Robin Arthur01/11 Antony and Cleopatra Cathy Naden + Post Show Discussion

Week 805/11 Two Gentlemen of Verona Claire Marshall06/11 Troilus and Cressida Jerry Killick07/11 As You Like It Robin Arthur08/11 Othello Cathy Naden + Post Show Discussion

Week 912/11 The Taming of the Shrew Claire Marshall13/11 The Comedy of Errors Terry O’Connor14/11 Timon of Athens Robin Arthur15/11 The Tempest Richard Lowdon + Post Show Discussion

›Complete Works: Table Top Shakespeare: At Home‹ is financially supported by the following partners: PACT Zollverein (Essen); Kanuti Gildi, Püha Vaimu SAAL (Tallinn); Kunstfestspiele Hannover; Künstlerhaus Mousonturm (Frankfurt / Main); Romaeuropa Festival (Rom); Shakespeare Festival Neuss; Center for the Art of Performance, UCLA (Los Angeles); The Mondavi Center, UC Davis; Stanford Live at Stanford University; UC Santa Barbara. Also presented as part of the ›Time-Based Art Festival 2020‹, Portland Institute for Contemporary Art and Temporada Alta 2020.

Conceived and devised by Forced Entertainment Performance: Robin Arthur, Jerry Killick, Richard Lowdon, Claire Marshall, Cathy Naden, Terry O’Connor Director: Tim Etchells Text: Robin Arthur, Tim Etchells, Jerry Killick, Richard Lowdon, Claire Marshall, Cathy Naden, Terry O’Connor Technical: Jim Harrison

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