Complete Works: Table Top Shakespeare

A salt and pepper pot for the king and queen. A vase for the prince. A matchbox for the servant. A toilet roll tube for the innkeeper. A water bottle for the messenger. In nine days, the performers of Forced Entertainment will condense every Shakespeare play ever written, one by one into a series of thirty-six intimate and lovingly made miniatures, using a collection of everyday objects as the characters. The performances will take place on a one-metre table top stage, where the plays will come to life in miniature form through modern storytelling and a kind of lo-fi, homemade puppetry. In Complete Works the dynamic force of narrative is explored in a simple and idiosyncratic summary of Shakespeare’s comedies, tragedies, histories, and late plays, creating worlds as vivid as they are strange.

The performances will be in English without Greek surtitles.

Please note that simple contemporary storytelling is used rather than traditional Shakespearean language.


Performances will be given in the following hours:

19:00 | 20:00 | 21:00 | 22:00

June 1^st

19:00 The Merchant of Venice (Nicki Hobday)

20:00 Love’s Labour’s Lost (Robin Arthur)

21:00 King John (Cathy Naden)

22:00 Twelfth Night (Jerry Killick)

June 2^nd

19:00 Antony and Cleopatra (Cathy Naden)

20:00 Troilus and Cressida (Jerry Killick)

21:00 The Taming of the Shrew (Nicki Hobday)

22:00 King Lear (Robin Arthur)

June 3^rd

19:00 A Midsummer Night’s Dream (Jerry Killick)

20:00 Timon of Athens (Robin Arthur)

21:00 The Winter’s Tale (Cathy Naden)

22:00 Macbeth (Richard Lowdon)

June 4^th

19:00 Richard II (Terry O’Connor)

20:00 Henry IV, Part 1 (Jerry Killick)

21:00 Henry IV, Part 2 (Jerry Killick)

22:00 Henry V (Nicki Hobday)

June 5^th

19:00 Henry VI, Part 1 (Richard Lowdon)

20:00 Henry VI, Part 2 (Richard Lowdon)

21:00 Henry VI, Part 3 (Richard Lowdon)

22:00 Richard III (Nicki Hobday)

June 6^th

19:00 The Merry Wives of Windsor (Terry O’Connor)

20:00 Julius Caesar (Robin Arthur)

21:00 The Two Gentlemen of Verona (Nicki Hobday)

22:00 Romeo and Juliet (Terry O’Connor)

June 7^th

19:00 Coriolanus (Jerry Killick)

20:00 Othello (Cathy Naden)

21:00 Cymbeline (Terry O’Connor)

22:00 As You Like It (Robin Arthur)

June 8^th

19:00 Titus Andronicus (Robin Arthur)

20:00 Much Ado About Nothing (Richard Lowdon)

21:00 Pericles (Cathy Naden)

22:00 Hamlet (Terry O’Connor)

June 9^th

19:00 All’s Well That Ends Well (Nicki Hobday)

20:00 Measure for Measure (Cathy Naden)

21:00 The Comedy of Errors (Terry O’Connor)

22:00 The Tempest (Richard Lowdon)