We are very pleased to announce the Yorkshire Evening Post are to sponsor the 2009 Leeds Shakespeare Festival. This is excellent news for the BSC as it marks the local support of what will be the 14th year this event has been running.

We will still have to pay the Leeds City Council around £20,000 to be allowed to put on the event. This just hires us the grass area at the abbey and we have to add all other facilities. So we do need further donations and support for the event. 

We are offering a Free children’s day for the festival to encourage young people to attend and enjoy the show and to demonstrate how much Shakespeare is at the heart of our culture. We are still contacting local businesses and larger corporations for financial support and sponsorship as the running costs and recent addition of hire fees are forever increasing. Please contact us you are able to offer support or have any recommendations of people to contact who you think may be able to help.

I am very pleased to announce that Josephine Short has joined the BSC as Producer. She worked with us on our Dream production at Arundel Castle and we are very pleased that she has now taken this permanent position. She is an actress and has worked extensively in marketing and produced for her own company Elsewhere. She is passionate about Shakespeare and has lots of energy and ideas for the future. Her energy and input are already shaping the future of the BSC so please keep returning for several exciting announcements over the coming weeks. Please feel free to contact her with venues, corporate or any ideas for the future of the BSC jo@britishshakespearecompany.com Robert J. Williamson will remain in charge of artistic policy.

We were honoured to spend the evening with GREENPEACE on their flagship the Rainbow Warrior at a party for those in the arts that support their work. Robert J. Williamson Artistic Directer and Josephine Short Producer are pictured on the bridge of this incredible ship. I fully support their incredible work in bringing to public attention the impact man is having on the enviroment. We believe in a small way our own work connects art and nature by producing the works of Shakespeare in an open air setting. 

We are busy with plans for our 2009 season which will include an indoor show in London as well as a full tour. So please keep visiting for details or add your email to our mailing list on the home page. We only email a couple of times a year and do not share your information with anyone else.

I would again like to thank all those that have supported us in 2008 especially Chris Hopkins at Design Forte for his brilliant web, leaflet, programme design and photography for the company. We hope those reading this will support those that support our company and you could not find a better service anywhere.

As we plan our next season and perhaps you can help. Do you know a venue that you believe we should approach? Do you know a company that might be interested in our corporate packages as any profit from these will be used to provide our tour. Then please do not hesitate to contact us.

If you believe you can offer services, support, sponsorship, would like to become a festival friend or have any other suggestions to help keep our company producing the very best open air Shakespeare then please contact me robert@britishshakespearecompany.com

Thank you all,

Robert J. Williamson

Paul Newman died Friday after a long battle with cancer at his farmhouse near Westport, he was surrounded by his family and close friends.

In May, Newman had dropped plans to direct a theatre production of “Of Mice and Men,” citing unspecified health issues.

He got his start in theater during the 1950’s, and went on to become one of the world’s most enduring and popular film stars, a legend held in awe by his peers. He was nominated for Oscars 10 times, winning one regular award and two honorary ones, and had major roles in more than 50 motion pictures.

Newman worked with some of the greatest directors of the past half century, from Alfred Hitchcock and John Huston to Robert Altman, Martin Scorsese and Sam Mendes. His co-stars included Elizabeth Taylor, Lauren Bacall, Tom Cruise, Tom Hanks and, most famously, Robert Redford, his sidekick in “Butch Cassidy” and “The Sting.” He sometimes teamed with his wife and fellow Oscar winner, Joanne Woodward, with whom he had one of Hollywood’s rare long-term marriages.

An entrepreneur and humantarian he founded a food company ‘Newman’s Own’ from which Newman donated all profits and royalties to charity. As of May 2007, these donations have exceeded US$220 million. These included donations to Shakespeare’s Globe Theatre in London and The Texas Shakespeare Festival when shortsighted councillors withdrew funding.

edited review - please follow link for full review 

The bard would have been well pleased with the location for this most whimsical and light hearted play. The garden in Arundel Castle provided a magical and idyllic setting. The centrepiece Oberon’s Palace, a fantastic spectacle designed by Indigo Jones for Prince Henry’s Masque on New Year’s Day 1611 - just five years after A Midsummer Night’s Dream was first presented.

Shakespeare probably sums it up best, when one of the characters refers to “the pert and nimble spirit of mirth”

Brighton Argos 30.08.08

edited review - please follow link for full review 

Shakespeare bounded back into Arundel Festival with an outstanding production of A Midsummer Night’s Dream in the perfect setting of Arundel Castle’s new Collector Earl’s Garden.

Two sell-out nights, with audiences increased to 800 for each performance… a well-deserved reward for a fine staging of this mystical, magical comedy by the British Shakespeare Company.

Luminaries in the audience including Sir Trevor Nunn, Imogen Stubbs and Sir David Frost must have enjoyed their night beneath the West Sussex sky.

Wilder and Lake were particular strengths of a very good cast of 15. They lived the parts whether sharing the hopes and fears of young love, fighting and even hair-pulling as rivals or pouring out their hearts to the objects of their affection.

Barrie Palmer, Anthony Acosta, Robert J Williamson, Kevin Brannagan and Robert Crumpton were in fine form as the bumbling “rude mechanicals”, so much more than a mere comic interlude, Williamson’s attention to detail as director shining through in beautifully staged scenes.

The effects of the magical love potion dispensed by Puck were, mercifully for the mortals, short-lived, but the spell woven by this “Dream” will live long in the memories of those fortunate enough to witness it.

And the word is that both the castle and this excellent company are keen to mount a longer run next year to satisfy demand.

If you saw the show please leave a comment.

Richard Morrison as Puck

Oliver Farnworth (Lysander) and Jacqueline Wilder (Hermia)

Daniela Lavender (Titania)

Rebecca Wicking (Peaseblossom) and Mackenzie Rowswell (Indian changeling child)

Oliver Farnworth (Lysander) and Richard Morrison (Puck) - photo by Barrie Palmer

Amy Louise Smith (Cobweb), Rebecca Wicking (Peaseblossom), Robert J Williamson (as Bottom) and Elyon (Mustardseed)

Rebecca Wicking (Peaseblossom) and Richard Morrison (Puck)

Oliver Farnworth (Lysander) and Jacqueline Wilder (Hermia)

Robert J Williamson (Bottom), Kevin Brannagan (Tom Snout) and Robert Crumpton (Snug)

Our shows at Arundel were a total sell-out and have been described as ‘a triumph’. Special guest Sir David Frost said the show was “Crisp, clear, outstanding. A wonderful show. A great performance”. Imogen Stubbs, who came with partner Sir Trevor Nunn, said the show was “Just wonderful - these actors know how Shakespeare should be spoken”. Actress Marsha Fitzalan said “The show was fabulous and fitted beautifully into the venue”. It is wonderful to have such a great response to our work from people that I have long admired.

We are very pleased to announce we have been personally invited by the Duke of Norfolk to return in 2009 for a longer run at this magnificent, beautiful and historic venue.

Our thanks go to the Duke & Duchess of Norfolk for inviting us, Bryan McDonald, Jo Smith and all the Arundel staff, and to our appreciative audience, magnificent cast and hard-working technical crew.

If you saw the show please leave a comment.

See Gallery page for all show photographs.
Photographs are copyright of Chris Hopkins and may not be reproduced without permission.

A warning to everyone wanting tickets for Shakespeare at Arundel almost all are gone. The event sold out but extra tickets have been released and they are nearly gone too - no more will be released after these are sold as the event is at its capacity for its theatrical licence - 800 people! I am told they have already stopped online booking for the Friday 29th but you can get the last few by phone if you call now. A few extra are left for the Thursday 28th but I would not wait as you will miss out. This is going to be a great couple of shows.

With just a week and a half to go before our Arundel shows, the cast are in the midst of rehearsals. It’s going to be a fabulous show and tickets are almost sold out. Full cast biographies are on our main site (click here) including our youngest member at just 5 1/2 years old.