Undead Bard - Returning to London

I'm coming back to the London Fringe people!  I've been away from London for four years.  Okay, that's not quite true.  I've done the odd one off night, but haven't run for a week or more since 2012 with Ghost Storyteller and The Fantasy Terrorist Variations.  It's not that I haven't wanted to return - I've just not been desperately well on and off since 2012 and you can't do a run if you're not physically up to it.  For the last few years I've been focusing on smaller, one off and more internet based shows.  I've just finished the first of (hopefully) many live radio comedy shows and have a more audio podcast based practice now.  In terms of doing live shows, I'm looking on two big projects each year, with one hopefully coming to London or maybe to the Edinburgh Fringe.

So, Undead Bard.  It's the end of nearly four years work - a series of plays or pieces that dance around the afterlife of Shakespeare.  They don't focus on the plays or his work, they're about his reputation, the love or hate people have for him and his work and the Shakespeare culture industry.  The show performing at Theatre N16 (in Balham) is the final stage for the show/s.  It will feature new work and the first piece in the sequence, The Shakespeare Delusion, a piece about the authorship 'question' which is where it all started in 2012.  Then there's the new(ish) piece The Ever Living - which is about Shakespeare the brand that eats our culture.  Lastly, I'm currently writing a new new piece about Shakespeare as secular God - as yet untitled.  This last piece is taking me full circle with this project, as it's based on a section I cut from the first draft of Delusion because it didn't fit.  It will get it's own chance to shine.

Stating all the above makes the show sound terribly dull and worthy - but basically, it's all comedy and at times downright silly.  It's a show that the most die hard Shakespeare fan should love as much as the greatest Shakespeare hater.  And, for those who've been suffering from Shakespeare fatigue this long three year 450th Birth/400th Death anniversary cycle of Bardolatry, it features almost nothing from his plays at all.  Hell, I'm not stupid enough to put my dialogue next to his, you tend to lose.

Milk Bottle Productions Presents...

UNDEAD BARD

By multi award-winning writer and performer Robert Crighton

Shakespeare is dead, but he just won’t stop talking.  His words are immortal, but they keep changing.  Award-winning writer and performer Robert Crighton explores the current boom in Shakespeare and how everything is now devoted to his holy name.  Undead Bard is an unholy smorgasbord of play, comedy, and music, pulling apart Shakespeare, Bardolatry, and the modern world, for your pleasure.

More details about the show and online podcasts on the Undead Bard at www.milkbottleproductions.co.uk

Audience Comments for earlier ‘Undead Bard’ show ‘The Shakespeare Delusion’ (2014):  “Fabulous production... Just recovering from high octane performance of @RobertCrighton The Shakespeare Delusion #immense...  I SO knew where The Shakespeare Delusion was going - & I was SO wrong!!! Chekhov meets Berkoff as performed by Stephen Fry.”

Performing at Theatre N16

Sunday 2^nd October to Thursday 13^th October at 7.30pm

Matinee at Saturday 8^th October at 3pm

Tickets £12 / 10 concessions – https://www.ticketsource.co.uk/event/145903

Theatre N16, The Bedford, 77 Bedford Hill, SW12 9HD - www.theatren16.co.uk

All this work is supported by Patreon - without the support of my patrons I could not do shows like this.  To support more work like this go to www.patreon.com/robertcrighton