Forced Entertainment

»O Romeo, Romeo, wherefore art thou Romeo?«

Perhaps the most famous lovers of all time. Thwarted by an age-old family feud, their love on earth seems impossible…

»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 ›Table Top Shakespeare: At Home Edition‹.

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.

24/09 Romeo and JulietPerformance: Terry O’Connor

25/09 King JohnPerformance: Cathy Naden

26/09 Titus AndronicusPerformance: Robin Arthur

27/09 Much Ado About NothingPerformance: Richard Lowdon

For all the dates see the programme overview

›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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