Barbican joins the Shakespeare400 celebrations with cross-arts programme Play On...
IN 2016, the Barbican will take part in Shakespeare400, which will see a consortium of UK leading cultural, creative and educational organisations hosting a series of events marking the 400th year of Shakespeare’s death.
The Shakespeare400 programme is co-ordinated by King’s College London and as part of the series, the Barbican will present Play On…, a unique international and cross-arts programme featuring performance, music, cinema and creative learning initiatives.
THEATRE and PERFORMANCE
King and Country: Shakespeare’s Great Cycle of Kings – in the Barbican Theatre from Tuesday, January 12 to Sunday, January 24.
Following productions of Richard II (2013/14) and Henry IV Parts I & II (2014/15), Gregory Doran and the RSC creative team continue their exploration of Shakespeare’s History plays, returning with Henry V‘s epic tale in the 600th anniversary year of the Battle of Agincourt, featuring Alex Hassell as the newly crowned Henry V in the final part of the tetralogy.
Hassel also stars in Henry IV Parts I & II in the role of Prince Hal, alongside Anthony Sher as Falstaff. In January, David Tennant returns to the Theatre as Richard II.
A major theatrical event to mark the 400th anniversary of Shakespeare’s death, King and Country includes Richard II, Henry IV Parts I & II and Henry V performed in repertoire as a complete four-play season cycle. This is the only opportunity for audiences to watch the RSC’s tetralogy of History plays as a cycle in the UK prior to its international tour.
Forced Entertainment – Complete Works: Table Top Shakespeare – in The Pit from Tuesday, March 1 to Sunday, March 6.
Forced Entertainment brings you the Complete Works as never before, each of Shakespeare’s 36 plays condensed and presented on a table top using a cast of everyday objects.
Theatre pioneers Forced Entertainment explore the dynamic force of narrative and language in their simple yet distinctive summary of the comedies, tragedies, histories and late works. With artists from the company retelling each play over the course of a week, audiences can see one or as many performances as they like. Intimate and scaled down, the worlds created are vivid, accessible and often comic.
Toneelgroep Amsterdam – Kings of War – in the Barbican Theatre from Friday, April 22 to Sunday, April 24 and Friday, April 29 to Sunday, May 1.
In Kings of War, Shakespeare’s Henry V, Henry VI and Richard III become modern-day political leaders, their fates unfolding in this single, explosive play. Integrating live music and video feeds, Ivo van Hove directs this radical adaptation, a psychological portrayal of power on the same scale as the ground-breaking Roman Tragedies of 2009.
Van Hove was named Best Director at the Olivier Awards and the Critics’ Circle Theatre Awards in 2015 for A View from the Bridge, which played at the Young Vic and in the West End and opened on Broadway in October 2015. His latest production for the Barbican, Antigone, has played in Europe and has just completed a tour in the United States.
Royal Shakespeare Company in association with Tower Theatre Company: A Midsummer Night’s Dream: A Play for the Nation – in the Barbican Theatre from Tuesday, May 17 to Saturday, May 21.
This production is part of a nationwide tour which sees the RSC working with 13 partner theatres. Directed by RSC Deputy Artistic Director, Erica Whyman, the Barbican run features eighteen RSC professional actors alongside amateur performers from Tower Theatre Company, selected to play Bottom and the Mechanicals, and east London schoolchildren playing Titania’s fairy train.
This is an arrangement developed between the RSC and Equity.
Malthouse Theatre – The Shadow King in the Barbican Theatre from Wednesday, June 22 to Saturday, July 2.
Transporting King Lear to the story-rich and resource-laden terrain of northern Australia, The Shadow King reimagines Shakespeare’s tragedy as a blood-soaked tale of two indigenous families divided by land, identity and legitimacy.
Told through modern English, Kriol languages and a score, including Aboriginal ‘dreamtime’ songs, performed live by an onstage band, The Shadow King fuses music, new text and video to create provocative and epic theatre. Following a Best Direction win for Michael Kantor at the 2014 Helpmann Awards, the production brings together Australia’s foremost Indigenous actors led by Tom E. Lewis.