The Liverpool University Players

Present

Shakespeare’s Romeo & Juliet Greatest Hits Midsummer Night’s Dream

Cast and Crew Shakespeare’s Drama

Connor Brown Romeo, Sebastian, Witch 1, Egeus, Bottom, In his lifetime, ’s plays were initially performed in Ferdinand, Ghost London’s outdoor playhouses such as the Globe and then later using the Mary-Jayne Cooper Juliet, Feste, Antonio, Lady Macbeth, Helena, Blackfriars theatre as an alternative indoor venue. His plays drew crowds from all Gonzalo, Stephano, Player walks of life: contemporary records reveal the presence of nobility and gentry, Priya Odedra Lady Capulet, , Witch 2, Hermia, yeomen, tradesmen, sailors, apprentices, shopkeepers and artisans in the audience Miranda ,Ophelia at the Globe, and a slightly more elite crowd at the indoor theatre. Since Joe Ramsden Friar Lawrence, Sir Andrew, Servant, Lennox, Lysander, Prospero, Horatio, Laertes Shakespeare’s death in 1616, his plays have continued to be performed (although Madelaine Smart Nurse, , Witch 3, Hippolyta, Titania, perhaps for an increasingly less diverse audience), read, discussed, studied, Ariel, Gertrude written about, and adapted for stage, screen and radio. Lewis Smith Benvolio, Captain, Officer, Mavolio, Banquo, There are many potential arguments for the enduring popularity of Shakespeare’s Macduff, Demetrius, Quince, Alonso, Polonius plays: his unique and enchanting use of language, for example, or their value as Greg Vicary Tyblat, Apothecary, , Macbeth, Theseus, Oberon, Trinculo, Antonio, Bernardo, Claudius part of a British literary canon. But underpinning all the other potential Geraint Williams Mercutio, Balthasar, Sir Toby, Duncan, Ross, arguments seems to lie their appeal to something intrinsically human that Murderer, Puck, Caliban, Sebastian, Hamlet transcends any potential context of the last 400 years. Shakespeare writes about subjects that we understand and experience, even if only vicariously: subjects Directors Sarah Peverley, Joe Ramsden, Madelaine Smart such as love, lust, greed, ambition, jealousy, power, family, hope, and folly (not necessarily in that order…). We care about because we have Script Esme Miskimmin (Midsummer Night’s Dream); been in love. We see our fears of poor governance and political corruption played Sarah Peverley (Romeo & Juliet, Hamlet, The out in Macbeth and learn to be careful what we wish for through watching A Tempest); Joe Ramsden (Twelfth Night, Macbeth); Midsummer Night’s Dream. Madelaine Smart. Each adaptation of the plays reveals something new – a different focus for the Costumes and Props The Liverpool University Players audience of its time and place. There are reasons that Nahum Tate’s 1681 had a happy ending, for example, or that Laurence Olivier’s film of Programme Esme Miskimmin and Sarah Peverley did so well in 1944. Kenneth Branagh and Joss Whedon’s pre and post-millennial versions of are films of their time, twenty years apart.

But what of these three- to five- minute versions? Tweetable Shakespeare, With special thanks to… perhaps? Shakespeare for a generation who are more than ever ‘time’s subjects’? Maybe. But attempting to condense Shakespeare, whilst perhaps a potentially Staff at The National Trust and Walker Gallery; Catherine Jackman; comedic process and maybe to some an irreverent one, also acts as a focus, a Christina Waugh; The Friends of the University; Liverpool Centre for distillation, of all that engages us in the first place. In this collection of Medieval and Renaissance Studies; The School of the Arts, Liverpool Shakespearean drama condensed into several minutes, you will witness true love, murder, passion denied and passion fulfilled, cross-dressing, fairies, regicide University; Janice Brooks. (more than once), ghosts, shipwrecks and a whole lot more. Shakespeare in three hours or three minutes – it’s a lifetime of experience, however you look at it.