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The Guerrilla Shakespeare Company in association with Illuminati Productions is a professional company which specialises in Shakespeare, the production of new work and the revival of classics. |
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NEWS
On 22nd-24th April 2010, we performed our poular compilation "Happy Birthday Mr Shakespeare", a pilot production for a much larger scale possible project for Shakespeare 2012 celebrations.
Shakespeare at its (al)most accessible! A heady mix of romance, tragedy, comedy a bit of Bard biography, some sonnets... and a lot of fun! Presented as a rehearsed reading by The Guerilla Shakespeare Company, Britain's premier hit and run bardolators onThursday April 22nd and Friday 23rd 2010 ( Shakepeare's Birthday) at The Space, Queen Street, Colchester and on Saturday April 24th 2010 at the place where it all began... Shakespeare's original theatre site -the Rose Bankside, 56 Park Street, Southwark, London
Guerrilla Shakespeare Company's "Happy Birthday Mr Shakespeare" from Dorian Kelly on Vimeo.
A Review of Happy Birthday Mr. Shakespeare
by Roberto Landi for remotegoat on 11/05/10
As celebrations go, there's no better way to celebrate a playwright than performing extracts from his best and well-known plays on the very space where his career started.
This is what Guerrilla Shakespeare do by bringing Shakespeare to the place where it all begun on the day of his 446th birthday (sort of).
"Happy Birthday, Mr. Shakespeare!" is a cleverly put-together mix of well-known Shakespearean monologues, scenes and sonnets performed by a well assorted ensemble of six actors.
The show is presented as a rehearsed reading in which the actors' personalities meet, clash and get together to infuse blood, tears and laughter into the Bard's words. The actors, led by a slightly grumpy director (Jason Catrell) are slowly led towards the Shakespearean universe, using their own personalities as a way to get closer to the characters they will interpret.
The monologues are alternated with biographical information on Shakespeare, hinting at the moments in his life that might have served as inspiration for some of his works.
From "O Romeo" to "We band of brothers", most of the tropes of Shakespeare's works are revisited and rendered in a lively manner, thus creating a good equilibrium between dramatic and comedic moments.
The Rose Theatre - the oldest Elizabethan theatre on the South Bank, London's newest gem - provides the perfect setting for this work and helps conveying the illusion of the performance as being still a work in progress.
Memorable are Walter Van Dyk's Henry V; Dorian Kelly's Launce, from Two Gentlemen of Verona, and Kathryn Ritchie's mad Ophelia.
Event Venues & Times
finished The Rose Theatre | 56 Park Street, Bankside, SE1 9HS
FUTURE PROJECTS
(In preparation) "THE TEMPEST" as a fully mounted multilingual version suitable for use with non-english speaking audiences worldwide.
"CYMBELINE" - a rehearsed reading.
CASTING: We cast from actors whose work we know, and through Professional Casting Report (PCR) http://www.pcrnewsletter.com/pcr/
ABOUT GUERRILLA SHAKESPEARE
Shakespeare at its most accessible! This company was originally formed to provide an evening of highly entertaining Shakespeare readings to the hospitality community, available for parties, conferences, fundraising evenings, restaurants and so on, anywhere in the UK. We also present full scale rehearsed readings of the entire canon of The bard's plays, with the ocassional fully-mounted productions over the next ten years.
We can organise Shakespeare-themed dinner evenings, providing a cabaret environment. The whole cabaret lasts up to one hour and a half, or can be as short and sharp as necessary. It is divided into sections as required to fit in with the dinner service and aftermath. Guest participation is an important part. We can also provide the complete package with decor and catering as required. As for pricing and so on, contact us
The cabaret: the professional actors we use mingle unobstrusively with the guests until on a given signal the readings begin. Using between three and twelve actors, we mix romance , tragedy, comedy and - on Shakespeare's birthday for example - a bit of Bard biography. Where space and circumstances permit we do a swordplay scene from "Romeo and Juliet" or "Hamlet", the watch scene from "Much Ado" and an amazing punk fairy jazz song from "A Midsummer Nights Dream". There are sonnets, monologues both tragic and comic, wry comments on Shakespeare from Bernard Levin's writings and a comedy music hall pastiche called "The Night I Appeared as Macbeth".How about Pyramus and Thisbe at your wedding?
We also have scripts for Burns' Night and St Patrick's Night and we will write to order for any special occasion or on any theme, for example horse racing, weddings, historical celebrations etc.