The artwork for Shakespeare’s Speakeasy at York International Shakespeare Festival
“IT’S Shakespeare, but it’s secret”. Can a group of strangers successfully stage a Shakespearean play in a day?
Shakespeare’s Speakeasy is the place find out as part of York International Shakespeare Festival at Theatre@41, Monkgate, York, tomorrow at 7.30pm (box office, yorkshakes.co.uk).
Directed and produced by Steve Arran, for one night only this production offers an irreverent and entertaining take on one of Bill the Bard’s best-known plays, crammed into only 60 minutes.
“Five actors are given a script with their lines and cues and must learn it over the course of a month without ever meeting each other,” says Steve. “On the day of performance, the actors meet for the first time and rehearse for six hours before staging a 100 per cent ‘not-all-serious play’ from the canon.
“But which play will it be? Well, like all good Speakeasy shows, that’s a secret. The only way to find out is to come inside.”
Like last year’s inaugural York Shakespeare Speakeasy, when he played Sir Toby Belch in Twelfth Night, one of the actors will be Ian Giles, soon to reveal his Bottom in York Stage’s A Midsummer Night’s Dream at the Grand Opera House, York, from May 6 to 11 (box office, atgtickets.com/york).
Ian Giles’s Bottom in York Stage’s A Midsummer Night’s Dream, set on a northern council estate