My evenings have been occupied this past week with rehearsals for two stage productions. Next month I’ll be stepping onto the Watergate stage in Kilkenny as Eddy in Willy Russell’s Stags And Hens. This weekend, however, is in complete contrast as I, along with some of my fellow deviants, stage a performance called Shakespeare In Bits as part of the Shakespeare In The House festival in Kilkenny.
The festival, now in its second year, sees Dreamstuff Youth Theatre (the theatre wing of Young Irish Film Makers) perform abridged versions of Romeo & Juliet, Macbeth, A Midsummer Night’s Dream and The Comedy Of Errors. Cartoon Saloon will be on hand to provide a Shakespearean animation workshop, there’s a 60-second Shakespeare film competition and then there’s our programme, which certain deviates from the norm.
As part of Shakespeare In Bits were bringing performances from The Tempest, extracts from The Reduced Shakespeare Company’s Complete Works of William Shakespeare, a monologue or two from Hamlet, The New Yorker’s take on the recent Christian Bale rant (transformed to Shakespearean times), Rosencrantz & Guildenstern Are Dead (above), culminating in a sonnet-off akin to the rap battles of 8-Mile.
Each day starts around 11am (this Saturday and Sunday) and it all takes place in Rothe House on Parliament Street, Kilkenny. Admission is free.
For the moment, however, the sun seems to have vacated Kilkenny completely, but hopefully the rain will disappear to make way for the sun once more.
Superb. I’m sorry I missed it.
Was a good two days alright. If I had actually remembered, I would have set up the camera for two days to record the lot but it’s possible that Young Irish Film Makers will release some footage at some stage. If they do, I’ll grab it and post it here.
We might look at the possibility of recording the pieces again for MP3 release, and then there’s also talk of us staging some productions in their entirety – namely the works from the Reduced Shakespeare Company (think it’s 37 plays in under 2 hours) and the full-length Rosencrantz and Guildenstern are Dead.
I did enjoy playing Rosencrantz I have to say.
I’m a huge fan of Rosencrantz and Guildenstern. I saw a wonderful amateur production of it last year and have been dying to catch it again since. Please, please, please put on a full production of it. 🙂