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Shakespeare’s classic story of love, magic and treachery featuring fairies, beasts and gods.

Featuring theatre, dance, puppetry and film, and told with Blue Apple’s trademark wit and charm.

When I first took up my post at Blue Apple I was so happy that the company hadn’t yet tackled this play. The magic, the power-games, the romance, the comedy and the distinct lack of vengefulness were all things I thought Blue Apple could shine an interesting light on.

We have taken some liberties with the classic text but we hope you will forgive us because there is a noble tradition of classics being a prism through which to look at ourselves now. We might think ourselves to be very different from Elizabethans or Jacobeans but, apart from all the tech-trappings, are we closer than we think? As a character in one of our new scenes suggests, “we live in interesting times”, and they get more interesting by the week. This is our second production under the theme of ‘reconciliation’ and it seems that, wherever we look, this idea is needed now more than ever.

By chance we stumbled across a neat shanty song to start and close the show; only later did it occur to us that the words were, despite being ancient, oddly prescient: “In this windy old weather, this stormy old weather, when the wind blows, we all pull together”. As a company, we have tried to pull together as one to get this show on stage – you have the last and most important role as finally you will ‘release us from our bands, with the help of your good hands’.

Richard Conlon
Director

Classic text:

Prospero - Tommy Jessop
Miranda - Katy Francis
Ariel - James Benfield
Caliban - Lawrie Morris
Alonsa, Queen of Naples - Anna Brisbane
Ferdinand, Prince of Naples - Alistair Sinclair-Wilson
Antonia, Duchess of Milan - Ros Davies
Stephano, a Butler - Tom Hatchett
Trinculo, a jester - Sam Dace

New Scenes - all other people from the ship:

Daniel Austin
Neil Bennett
Amy Britt
Daniel Chopra
James Elsworthy
Tom Gibson
Joseph Guerrier
David Hunt
Jonny Ling
Andrew Malster
Ellie Moody
Kym Nash
Ryan Nicholas
Alice Peck
Emma Rabjohn
James Smith
Paul Smith
James Spencer
Lucy Thomas

Winchester College Boys:

Frederick Byers
Romarho Ibru
Seb Longman
John Julius Schwabach

Volunteers:

Rachel Collins
Sue Dashper
Chris Pearce
Michelle Pluck
Clare Talks
Laura Walton
Issy Wealleans

Production Team:

Director - Richard Conlon
Assistant Director - Alex Lonsdale
Production Management - Paul Milford & Hannah Parsons
Choreography - Amanda Watkinson & Caroline Hotchkiss
Costumes - Polly Perry
Set Design & Construction - Mark Pyke
Lighting Design & Operations - Paul Milford
Visuals - Amber Tunstall
Puppets & Puppeteering Support - Nigel Luck
Music & Sound - Ricky Tart
Stage Management - Hannah Parsons
Voice Coach - Sian Radinger
Movement Coach - Hayley Barker
Special Recording ‘Windy Old Weather’ - The Blue Apple Singers
Academic Partner At The Shakespeare Institute - Rowan Mackenzie

Prospero’s Cloak:

Design & Creation - Sonia Tuttiett For East London Textile Arts
The Mcgrath Makers - Fenella, Ramdas, Halima, Donald, Carina, Roma, Arida
Textile Art Facilitator - Sophia Ramsay
The East Ham Embroiderers - Laura, Marianne, Lynn, Pam, Sameena, Rakshanda, Lorna, Sindy, Kang Sing, Karen, Lubna, Rekha, Debbie, Ruby, Vernita, Satnam
Fabric Painting - Jono
Director Of East London Textile Arts - Celia Ward

Photography - Mike Hall
Front Cover Image & Logo Design - Simon Morris
Graphic Design - Richard Williams

Thursday 13, Friday 14 & Saturday 15 June 2019
Theatre Royal Winchester