Stratford is home to some of the worlds best known Shakespeare theatres. Find below details of two of these theatres & details of the shows being performed:
Swan Theatre:
The Swan Theatre is a favourite space for both actors and audiences with its intimate staging and the close proximity of the audience to the action.
Built in the surviving shell of the 1879 Memorial Theatre (destroyed by fire in 1926) with funds donated by benefactor Frederick Koch, the Swan Theatre opened in Stratford-upon-Avon in 1986.
The Swan is a unique, modern theatre space based on the design of playhouses in Elizabethan England; with a three-tier wooden structure, a thrust stage and the audience surrounding the performers.
A New Way to Please You.
Runs in repertoire at the Swan Theatre, Stratford-upon-Avon from 16 March - 3 November 2005.
'But tell me, faith, your fair opinion:
Is it not a sound and necessary law,
This by the duke enacted?'
Act I Sc i
The running time for A New Way To Please You is approx. 2 hours and 20 minutes with an interval of 20 minutes.
A New Way to Please You by Thomas Middleton, William Rowley and Philip Massinger.
When a law is passed stating that every man at the age of 80 and every woman at the age of 60 should be 'put down' for having no further use to society, cross-generational fireworks are unleashed.
This production is directed by Sean Holmes. His previous RSC productions include Richard III and Measure For Measure for the Royal Shakespeare Theatre in 2003, as well as The Roman Actor, part of the Olivier-award winning Jacobean season 2002 (Swan and Gielgud Theatre, London). He is currently Associate Director of Oxford Stage Company.
The Royal Shakespeare Theatre:
The Royal Shakespeare Theatre’s auditorium boasts a large proscenium arch stage and raked style seating with stalls, circle and balcony areas. The theatre is the ‘main-house’ for the RSC in Stratford-upon-Avon.
Opened in 1878 on land donated by Charles Edward Flower, the original Memorial Theatre was a Victorian gothic building with seating for 711 people. The inaugural performance in the theatre was of Much Ado About Nothing, with Barry Sullivan as Benedick and Helen Faucit as Beatrice.
The original theatre was destroyed by fire in 1926 - the Swan Theatre occupies all that remains of the Victorian Memorial Theatre. In 1932, the new Shakespeare Memorial Theatre designed by Elisabeth Scott was opened. In 1960, Peter Hall formed the modern Royal Shakespeare Company and in 1961, the Memorial Theatre was renamed the Royal Shakespeare Theatre.
A Midsummer Night's Dream.
R runs in repertoire at the Royal Shakespeare Theatre, Stratford-upon-Avon from 31 March - October 2005.
'Those be rubies, fairy favours;
In those freckles live their savours.
I must go seek some dewdrops here,
And hang a pearl in every cowslip's ear.'
Act II Sc i, 12
The running time for A Midsummer Night's Dream is approx. 2 hours and 40 minutes with an interval of 20 minutes.
Young lovers defy authority and flee the court, only to find themselves caught in a web of illusion and magic in the Athenian woods.
A Midsummer Night’s Dream is directed by RSC Associate Director Gregory Doran. His most recent productions for the RSC include the highly-acclaimed Venus and Adonis, The Taming of The Shrew, The Tamer Tamed and All’s Well That Ends Well with Judi Dench and Othello with Antony Sher. Gregory Doran also directs Sejanus: His Fall by Ben Jonson in this year’s Gunpowder Season.