TBA:20
Forced Entertainment
Complete Works: Table Top Shakespeare: At Home
Presented in association with UCLA’s Center for the Art of Performance
DATES
All plays will be performed at 12:00 PM PDT | CLOSED CAPTIONING
September 17 Macbeth: Richard Lowdon | TICKETS/WATCH
September 18 Pericles: Cathy Naden | TICKETS/WATCH
September 19 The Merchant of Venice: Claire Marshall | TICKETS/WATCH
September 20 A Midsummer Night’s Dream: Jerry Killick - followed by a post-show discussion | TICKETS/WATCH
September 24 Romeo and Juliet: Terry O’Connor | TICKETS/WATCH
September 25 King John: Cathy Naden | TICKETS/WATCH
September 26 Titus Andronicus: Robin Arthur | TICKETS/WATCH
September 27 Much Ado About Nothing: Richard Lowdon - followed by a post-show discussion | TICKETS/WATCH
DESCRIPTION
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. A kitchen table for a stage.
In this ‘At Home’ edition of Complete Works the dramatis personae of household objects return to a domestic setting in a unique staging directly from the performers’ homes to yours.
Originally conceived in 2015, in Complete Works six performers create condensed versions of all of the Shakespeare plays, comically and intimately retelling them, using a collection of everyday objects as stand-ins for the characters on the one metre stage of a table top.
Forced Entertainment have long had an obsession with virtual or described performance,
exploring in different ways over the years the possibilities of conjuring extraordinary scenes, images and stories using language alone. Complete Works: Table Top Shakespeare explores the dynamic force of narrative in relation to Shakespeare’s comedies, tragedies, histories and late plays. What follows is simple and idiosyncratic, absurd and strangely compelling as, through a kind of lo-fi, home-made puppetry, the stories of the plays really do come to life in vivid miniature.
Complete Works has been performed in theatre spaces across the world as well as being webcast to thousands of international viewers, however, while a global pandemic has shut
down stages everywhere, the piece finds an intimate new life by ‘coming home’. Rather than a table set against the red drapes of a theatre, the objects find their starting positions on Terry’s kitchen table or Jerry’s desk as if they’d just been taken down from the surrounding shelves and cupboards of each performers’ home.
Forced Entertainment’s Complete Works is the group’s first venture into Shakespearean territory and this ‘at home’ edition, presented over nine weeks, is a kind of quietly ambitious levelling and opening out of the plays. The project’s gently comic re-casting and re-telling of each play is also both a celebration of the stories’ power and a tribute to the durability of theatre itself.
Conceived and devised by Forced Entertainment
Performers Robin Arthur, Jerry Killick, Richard Lowdon, Claire Marshall, Cathy Naden and Terry O’Connor
Director Tim Etchells
Text Robin Arthur, Tim Etchells, Jerry Killick, Richard Lowdon, Claire Marshall, Cathy Naden and Terry O’Connor
Digital Production Management Jim Harrison
ABOUT
Forced Entertainment is a collective of six theater artists who have been working together since 1984. They have long had an obsession with virtual or described performance, exploring the possibilities of conjuring extraordinary scenes, images, and stories using language alone. Their work forges a strong link between form and content, reflecting the belief that the form of a project – the kind of experience it presents, the contract it makes with its audience, and how – is an inseparable and significant part of its meaning. Often described as being experimental or innovative, their approach to each work differs from project to project, taking inspiration from movies, the internet, stand-up, dance, bad television, performance art, and music as well as from theater itself. What ties the various strands of their work together is that the projects always strive to be vivid and original, demanding a lot from audiences and giving a lot in return.
Complete Works: Table Top Shakespeare: At Home is a Forced Entertainment production. Financially supported by the following partners: Kanuti Gildi SAAL; KunstFestSpiele Herrenhausen; Künstlerhaus Mousonturm; The Mondavi Center, UC Davis; PACT Zollverein; Romaeuropa Festival; Shakespeare Festival Neuss; Stanford Live at Stanford University; UCLA’s Center for the Art of Performance and UC Santa Barbara Arts & Lectures. Also presented as part of Portland Institute for Contemporary Art’s 2020 Time-Based Art Festival.
Director’s Note
"Complete Works: Table Top Shakespeare: At Home is a new version of an existing project in which we present the complete works of Shakespeare, using an ordinary table top as a stage and casting everyday objects as the characters. We’ve been presenting this work all over the world since 2015.
In this new version of the project the plays are presented at a table in the performers' own homes - in the kitchen or amongst the books in a bedroom or workspace. We’re all in some version of lockdown still here in the UK, theatres are closed as they are through much of the world thanks to the current Coronavirus pandemic. Presenting the pieces over the internet helps us keep contact with our audiences around the world and really suits these intimate
performances. The project has always been about the collision of these great significant Shakespearean dramas and the everyday world - presenting them from the domestic space of the performers really opens up and emphasises that element, underscoring the informality and personal approach that’s inherent in the project. Each presentation begins with a short informal introduction from the performer.
The project is very much a celebration of the adaptability and resilience of theatre - it can be done anywhere, with the most limited means. The table top can stage the most intense psychological interactions and journeys, the most complex historical events and the most ridiculous comical confusions. With an informal energy that’s more YouTube tutorial than Stratford-Upon-Avon the performances are compelling and intimate and always a little comical, a little absurd, but what’s important for us that they do really, in their own ways. succeed in bringing the plays to life.
Setting up for the project has certainly been a logistical and technical challenge - ensuring that all the performers (presently in 4 different cities) have their casts of objects, and that internet, camera and other tech in each of their home-bases is compatible to create and broadcast the pieces. We are getting there, ironing out the kinks in the system and figuring out how things need to be done. We do really hope that people will join us for the presentations of this work and help spread the word about it.”
Tim Etchells
Artistic Director of Forced Entertainment
August 2020
Full Schedule
Week 1: 17th – 20 September
09/17 Macbeth: Richard Lowdon
09/18 Pericles: Cathy Naden
09/19 The Merchant of Venice: Claire Marshall
09/20 A Midsummer Night’s Dream: Jerry Killick - followed by a post-show discussion
Week 2: 24th – 27th September
09/24 Romeo and Juliet: Terry O’Connor
09/25 King John: Cathy Naden
09/26 Titus Andronicus: Robin Arthur
09/27 Much Ado About Nothing: Richard Lowdon - followed by a post-show discussion
Week 3: 1st – 4th October
10/01 Hamlet: Terry O’Connor
10/02 Loves Labour’s Lost: Robin Arthur
10/03 The Winter’s Tale: Cathy Naden
10/04 All’s Well That Ends Well: Claire Marshall - followed by a post-show discussion
Week 4: 8th – 11th October
10/08 Richard II: Terry O’Connor
10/09 Henry IV Part 1: Jerry Killick
10/10 Henry IV Part 2: Jerry Killick
10/11 Henry V: Claire Marshall - followed by a post-show discussion
Week 5: 15th - 18th October
10/15 Henry VI Part 1: Richard Lowdon
10/16 Henry VI Part 2: Richard Lowdon
10/17 Henry VI Part 3: Richard Lowdon
10/18 Richard III: Claire Marshall - followed by a post-show discussion
Week 6: 22nd - 25th October
10/22 Measure for Measure: Cathy Naden
10/23 Corialanus: Jerry Killick
10/24 The Merry Wives of Windsor: Terry O’Connor
10/25 King Lear: Robin Arthur- followed by a post-show discussion
Week 7: 29th October – 1st November
*programs after October 25, 2020 will begin at 1:00 PM. PDT
10/29 Twelfth Night: Jerry Killick
10/30 Cymbeline: Terry O’Connor
10/31 Julius Caesar: Robin Arthur
11/01 Antony and Cleopatra: Cathy Naden - followed by a post-show discussion
Week 8: 5th – 8th November
11/05 Two Gentlemen of Verona: Claire Marshall
11/06 Troilus and Cressida: Jerry Killick
11/07 As You Like It: Robin Arthur
11/08 Othello: Cathy Naden - followed by a post-show discussion
Week 9: 12th – 15th November
11/12 Taming of the Shrew: Claire Marshall
11/13 The Comedy of Errors: Terry O’Connor
11/14 Timon of Athens: Robin Arthur
11/15 The Tempest: Richard Lowdon - followed by a post-show discussion