The Liverpool University Players

Present

Shakespeare’s

Greatest Hits

Romeo & Juliet

Midsummer Night’s Dream

Macbeth

Twelfth Night

The Tempest

Hamlet

Shakespeare’s Drama In his lifetime, William Shakespeare’s plays were initially performed in London’s outdoor playhouses such as the Globe and then later using the Blackfriars theatre as an alternative indoor venue. His plays drew crowds from all walks of life: contemporary records reveal the presence of nobility and gentry, yeomen, tradesmen, sailors, apprentices, shopkeepers and artisans in the audience at the Globe, and a slightly more elite crowd at the indoor theatre. Since Shakespeare’s death in 1616, his plays have continued to be performed (although perhaps for an increasingly less diverse audience), read, discussed, studied, written about, and adapted for stage, screen and radio.

There are many potential arguments for the enduring popularity of Shakespeare’s plays: his unique and enchanting use of language, for example, or their value as part of a British literary canon. But underpinning all the other potential arguments seems to lie their appeal to something intrinsically human that transcends any potential context of the last 400 years. Shakespeare writes about subjects that we understand and experience, even if only vicariously: subjects such as love, lust, greed, ambition, jealousy, power, family, hope, and folly (not necessarily in that order…). We care about Romeo and Juliet because we have been in love. We see our fears of poor governance and political corruption played out in Macbeth and learn to be careful what we wish for through watching A Midsummer Night’s Dream.

Each adaptation of the plays reveals something new – a different focus for the audience of its time and place. There are reasons that Nahum Tate’s 1681 King Lear had a happy ending, for example, or that Laurence Olivier’s film of Henry V did so well in 1944. Kenneth Branagh and Joss Whedon’s pre and post-millennial versions of Much Ado About Nothing are films of their time, twenty years apart.

But what of these three- to five- minute versions? Tweetable Shakespeare, perhaps? Shakespeare for a generation who are more than ever ‘time’s subjects’? Maybe. But attempting to condense Shakespeare, whilst perhaps a potentially comedic process and maybe to some an irreverent one, also acts as a focus, a distillation, of all that engages us in the first place. In this collection of Shakespearean drama condensed into several minutes, you will witness true love, murder, passion denied and passion fulfilled, cross-dressing, fairies, regicide (more than once), ghosts, shipwrecks and a whole lot more. Shakespeare in three hours or three minutes – it’s a lifetime of experience, however you look at it.

Cast and Crew Connor Brown Romeo, Sebastian, Witch 1, Egeus, Bottom,

Ferdinand, Ghost Mary-Jayne Cooper Juliet, Feste, Antonio, Lady Macbeth, Helena,

Gonzalo, Stephano, Player Priya Odedra Lady Capulet, Olivia, Witch 2, Hermia,

Miranda ,Ophelia Joe Ramsden Friar Lawrence, Sir Andrew, Servant, Lennox,

Lysander, Prospero, Horatio, Laertes Madelaine Smart Nurse, Viola, Witch 3, Hippolyta, Titania,

Ariel, Gertrude Lewis Smith Benvolio, Captain, Officer, Mavolio, Banquo,

Macduff, Demetrius, Quince, Alonso, Polonius Greg Vicary Tyblat, Apothecary, Orsino, Macbeth, Theseus,

Oberon, Trinculo, Antonio, Bernardo, Claudius Geraint Williams Mercutio, Balthasar, Sir Toby, Duncan, Ross,

Murderer, Puck, Caliban, Sebastian, Hamlet Directors Sarah Peverley, Joe Ramsden, Madelaine Smart Script Esme Miskimmin (Midsummer Night’s Dream);

Sarah Peverley (Romeo & Juliet, Hamlet, The Tempest); Joe Ramsden (Twelfth Night, Macbeth); Madelaine Smart.

Costumes and Props The Liverpool University Players Programme Esme Miskimmin and Sarah Peverley

With special thanks to… Staff at The National Trust and Walker Gallery; Catherine Jackman; Christina Waugh; The Friends of the University; Liverpool Centre for Medieval and Renaissance Studies; The School of the Arts, Liverpool University; Janice Brooks.