24th September 2022
- 25th September 2022
Special Events
PLEASE NOTE TICKETS FOR THE SHAKE FESTIVAL ARE BOOKED VIA THEIR BOX OFFICE: https://www.ticketsource.co.uk/shakefest
SHAKE Festival is delighted to return to The Cut on September 24th & 25th, with a dazzling line-up presenting a weekend of talks, workshops and performance on the subject of Shakespeare, open to all.
During the pandemic artistic director Jenny Hall took SHAKE Festival online, with live-streamed rehearsed readings of three plays and an evening of sonnets, featuring international stars Dan Stevens, Harriet Walter, Rebecca Hall, Geraldine James, Oliver Cotton, Janet Suzman, and many superb actors from Suffolk and beyond.
SHAKE FESTIVAL 2022 LISTINGS:
- GERALDINE JAMES – Talk
The award-winning actress Geraldine James (Anne with an E, Downton Abbey, Jewel in the Crown, Band of Gold) will give a talk on how she built her performances of Portia (Merchant of Venice) and Imogen (Cymbeline) both of which she played to great acclaim at the National Theatre in London. Her Portia was nominated for a Tony Award when it transferred to Broadway and she won the Canadian Screen Best Actress award for playing Marilla in Anne With An E on Netflix in 2018.
- EDWARD HALL – Talk
Ed was artistic director of the Hampstead Theatre for ten years, and now spends most of his time directing films (Blythe Spirit with Judi Dench) and TV (Gentleman Jack, Downton Abbey, The Durrells). We are very happy to welcome him to SHAKE to give an inspirational talk about how he founded the all-male Propeller Theatre Company in 1997.
- DIRECTING SHAKESPEARE – Workshop
Alan Cox will present a workshop, where he directs a group of actors in a scene from Shakespeare. Exploring the text in depth, this will be a fascinating insight into theatre work, and interactions from the audience will be welcome. Actors include Wendy Morgan, Helen Adie, Katherine MacRae, Ricky Blaine and Alistair Hall.
Alan Cox has directed at The Gate Theatre and elsewhere and as an actor has worked at the RSC and National Theatre. He played Uncle Vanya at the Hampstead Theatre and Claudius in Hamlet for the Shakespeare Theatre co in Washington, D.C. He played David Frost in the national tour of Frost/Nixon, made his Broadway debut in Translations (Friel), and his film debut as Watson in Young Sherlock Holmes. Other film work includes Contagion, The Dictator, Mrs. Dalloway, and An Awfully Big Adventure. Alan is an expert improvisor and collaborator in Ken Campbell’s School of Night.
- LUCY BAILEY – Talk
Distinguished theatre director Lucy Bailey (Agatha Christie’s ‘Witness For The Prosecution’ at London County Hall, ‘Oleanna’ at Theatre Royal Bath ) will talk about Much Ado About Nothing, her production running at Shakespeare’s Globe until October, and why this much loved comedy is currently having a moment.
- STEPHEN UNWIN – Talk
Steven Unwin (English Touring Theatre, Rose Theatre Kingston) will give a talk about his new book Poor Naked Wretches (Reaktion Books) which is a fascinating full length study of Shakespeare’s working people.
- ISSY & STEFAN’S SINGING WORKSHOP
Tripple Olivier Award Nominee Issy Van Randwyck, most recently seen in The Boyfriend at the Menier Chocolate Factory, will give a singing masterclass. Joining her on the piano will be actor, singer, musical director and RADA teacher, Stefan Bednarcyzk (Florence Foster Jenkins, Topsy Turvy, Musical Director at National Theatre, Barbican, Almeida and choirmaster at St Patrick’s Soho Square).
Open to all ages and levels of singing ability, Issy and Stefan will work with you to unlock the drama within a song and discover an exciting and emotional journey through the lyrics. We will be looking at ‘Brush Up Your Shakespeare’ from Kiss Me Kate (Cole Porter inspired by the Taming of the Shrew) and Tonight from West Side Story (Leonard Bernstein, Stephen Sondheim, Arthur Laurents, inspired by Romeo and Juliet). Please look at either song in preparation.
- PROFESSOR GRACE IOPPOLO – Talk
Grace will give a power-point presentation on Shakespeare’s colleagues Philip Henslowe and Edward Alleyn and London theatre history. The talk contains interesting images of original records, is pitched at all levels and is not at all stuffy! Grace is founder/ director of the Henslowe-Alleyn Digitisation Project and Professor of Shakespearean & Early Modern Drama at the University of Reading.
- PETER HAMILTON DYER – GLOBE PERFORMANCE WORKSHOP
Peter has worked extensively at Shakespeare’s Globe as both an actor and a tutor/director and is a member of Shakespeare’s Globe Higher Education Faculty, for whom he has been a Course Director, Scenes Director, Globe Performance Practice and Shakespeare’s Text tutor. He has taught MA and undergraduate students from the Royal Conservatoire of Scotland, Royal Birmingham Conservatoire, LAMDA, Rutgers University USA, and many others. He also played Feste in the famous 2013 Twelfth Night with Mark Rylance, Stephen Fry and Johnny Flynn in London and on Broadway.
- TIM FITZHIGHAM & THOM TUCK – Comedy Performance
416 years ago, Shakespeare’s Macbeth was first performed. 2022 sees the definitive production by multi award-winners Thom Tuck (The Penny Dreadfuls, Thom Tuck Goes Straight to DVD, Horrible Histories) and Tim FitzHigham (Paddington 2, After Life, BBC Radio 4’s The Gambler). With a script by Shakespeare (Coriolanus, Titus Andronicus, King John) two actors are, arguably, not enough actors. The greatest tragedy of SHAKE Fest 2022.
- DIANA QUICK
A performance or talk TBA, by the much loved theatre, TV and film actress.
- PAUL BENNEY – VIDEO ART
Paul Benney has worked as an artist and musician in both the U.S. and U.K. and is represented in public collections worldwide including The Metropolitan Museum of Art, The National Gallery of Australia, The National Portrait Gallery, The Royal Collection, The Eli Broad Foundation, AIG Houston, and Standard Life. Benney has twice won the public choice award in the BP Portrait Awards and was chosen by HRH Prince Charles for “Seven Portraits: Surviving the Holocaust” now hanging in the Royal Collection. Paul is provided some thought provoking video art, projected onto the back wall of the theatre at The Cut, for the duration of SHAKE Festival
- JENNY HALL – VERSE WORKSHOP
A workshop open to everybody and all levels of experience, in how to speak Shakespeare’s verse. Jenny has given workshops in verse speaking at King’s College Cambridge, Reading University, Newnham College Cambridge, Bedales School, The Cut and a lovely barn in Laxfield. She bases her workshops on the methods taught her by her late father, Sir Peter Hall, who founded the RSC in 1961.