THERE will be something completely different at Stratford-upon-Avon’s Royal Shakespeare Theatre throughout September.
For the Royal Shakespeare Company’s Mischief Festival this autumn, Gemma Brockis and Wendy Hubbard present a new devised piece, Kingdom Come, which will run from the 7 – 30 September. and will be accompanied by a series of talks and events.
The company includes; Nigel Barrett (Cyrano de Bergerac/Northern Stage and Every One/BAC); Emmanuella Cole (Revolt. She Said. Revolt Again./RSC); Lucy Ellinson (A Midsummer Night’s Dream: A Play for the Nation/RSC); Solomon Israel (What Country Friends Is This?/RSC and The Pulverised/Arcola); Tom Lyall (Associate Artist Shunt) and Madeleine Worrall (The Tempest/RSC and Peter Pan and Jane Eyre/National Theatre).
Deputy Artistic Director, Erica Whyman said: “I am delighted that the RSC has had the opportunity to collaborate with Gemma, Wendy and their team.
“They are theatre artists whose work I have known and admired for a long time, and Kingdom Come looks set to be properly ambitious, rich, visceral and thoughtful and quite unlike anything else you will see here this Autumn. They are true Mischief-makers.”
Kingdom Come is conceived and created Gemma Brockis and Wendy Hubbard, and devised with the company, with designer Charlotte Espiner and sound artist Melanie Wilson.
It is set in 1640, at the bitter end of one political order and in the struggle towards something new.
Parliament is rebellious. There are mobs on London’s streets. England, Ireland and Scotland are on the brink of a devastating civil war. In Whitehall, supported by the newest theatrical machinery, King Charles I is playing a god.
As the world turns upside down women preach, poor men lead, and radical ideas illuminate the carnage. But the Puritan state starts to tighten its grip, and making theatre could soon be a capital offence.
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