Shakespeare in Shoreditch Festival 2016
Preview by Lizzie Guilfoyle
A WORLD-record 1,000 plays will be performed in 10 days across East London on a ‘medieval pageant wagon’ to herald the launch of The Shakespeare in Shoreditch Festival 2016, which this year runs from April 20 to April 30.
Celebrating The Bard’s historic connection to the neighbourhood on the 400th anniversary of his death, the festival itself brings together four of the UK’s most engaging playwrights with four of London’s most exciting directors – alongside a programme of workshops, film screenings, and talks.
From April 8 to April 18, a newly formed company of Rude Mechanicals have scheduled a world record-breaking tour of Hackney on a ‘medieval pageant wagon’, when they will be performing the 1,000 plays written by playwright Annie Jenkins.
The Rude Mechanicals will slog down the River Lea and up the Kingsland Road, stopping off to perform around a hundred plays each day at some of Hackney’s most beloved cultural institutions – all the while recruiting new fans and audiences for the festival.
Launching on April 20, the festival itself is centred around the theme of Storms – and is headlined by four radical reinterpretations of Shakespeare’s plays by four of the UK’s most engaging playwrights (Lulu Raczka, David Watson, Amy Rosenthal, Charlene James) and helmed by four of London’s most exciting directors (Robyn Winfield-Smith, Roy Alexander Wise, Abigail Graham, Hannah Bannister).
Written and developed in Shoreditch, the newly-commissioned works all aim to build a connection between new, younger audiences and the world and works of Shakespeare – recruiting life-long fans and followers along the way.
Meanwhile, at the Festival Hub – at BL-NK, on Curtain Road – a ten-day programme of workshops, film screenings, and talks invites audiences to take shelter from the storm and share their own stories on A Hackney Story Map.
For more information visit shakespeareinshoreditch.in/ or newdiorama.com/whats-on/shakespeare-in-shoreditch-festival-2016.