Sunday 8th and 15th March 2026 mark Shake-Scene Shakespeare’s return to London for the first time since 2018 – but nobody’s read the whole play!
Covid lockdown turned the UK’s foremost cue-based performance company from in-person shows to online theatre. Over the last four years, Shake-Scene have performed in Tunbridge Wells and completed two residencies at Shakespeare North Playhouse near Liverpool – but now, at last, they’re back on stage in London!
Shake-Scene’s actors do not rehearse together before performing and prepare alone from their lines and cues only, in line with practices in Shakespeare’s own time. The actors perform in shared light, with no distracting sound or lighting cues – but beyond that, the play is created in the moment in front of the audience.
Angela Bull, familiar to fans of Coronation Street and DI Ray, is travelling from her Devon home: “I would always jump at the opportunity of working with Shake-Scene in person – travelling up from Devon is not an issue. Stage work is always exhilarating & cue script performance takes that to another level.”
Moscow-based Shakespeare actor, director, and teacher Olga Blagadotskikh is so excited that she’s flying in specially: “I have been playing with the Shake-Scene company online for more than three years now. But it’s my first time flying over to perform with them in person. What I love most about playing with Shake-Scene is the trust actors have in Shakespeare’s own directions. So excited to finally make it to the physical stage with Shake-Scene!”
And nobody reads the full play except the production’s Artistic Director and Prompter, Lizzie Conrad Hughes:
“In Shakespeare’s time, there was only one copy of the script – and they were extremely valuable. No player company would have time or money to copy the whole play out for its players, so all they got was their ‘part’ – words to speak and cues to move.”
Did they not rehearse together?
“That is a tricky question as records are almost non-existent, but current understanding is no, as there was no time.”
All Shake-Scene does is rehearse fights and intimacy sequences, and plan entrance and exit locations for the actors before performance.
They only hear all the play when the audience hears it too.
Two plays, both days – each day, a different cast.
Golden Goose Theatre, 146 Camberwell New Road, Camberwell, London, SE5 0RR.
Company website: https://www.shake-sceneshakespeare.co.uk/
Booking and full details: https://www.goldengoosetheatre.co.uk/whatson/measure-for-measure-and-julius-caesar-dirty-politics-double-bill
