Young Shakespeare actors to perform outdoors

Published: 15 June 2013
Reporter: Steve Orme

Playbox Theatre's Venus and Adonis
Playbox Theatre's The Taming of the Shrew

Warwick-based Playbox Theatre’s Shakespeare Young Company is preparing to take two new productions on tour.

The Rose Company will be staging a new adaptation of Shakespeare’s poem of love and loss Venus & Adonis in a variety of outdoor venues.

It will be performed at The Dream Factory, Warwick on Friday (21 June); the Student Arts Festival at the University of Warwick, Coventry on Saturday (22 June); the Royal Shakespeare Company’s outdoor space The Dell on Saturday 29 June; All Saints Church, Leamington Spa on Thursday 11 July; Ryton Organic Gardens, Coventry on Saturday 13 July; and the Bristol Shakespeare Festival on Saturday 20 July.

Playbox Theatre’s second ensemble The Fortune Company will meanwhile be staging The Taming of the Shrew at The Dream Factory from Thursday until Saturday, 4 to 6 July.

Director Mary King has explored the influence of commedia dell’arte on Shakespeare’s plays and their larger-than-life characters.

The imagery for the two productions is by artist Rosalind Lyons Hudson from her exhibition of original work at Shakespeare’s Globe in 2011.

Stewart McGill, SYC’s artistic director, said, “When I saw Rosalind’s work I thought how beautifully it captured the world we were trying to create in this summer’s journey of love and loss.”

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