EDINBURGH 2016: BWW Q&A - Reduced Shakespeare Company

We speak to the Reduced Shakespeare Company about their 2016 Edinburgh Fringe show Shakespeare's Long Lost First Play.

Tell us a bit about William Shakespeare's Long Lost First Play

We were on tour in England last year and had just finished performing at a theatre in Leicester. And we went back to Titus which was parked... Oh, wait. I should explain. We travel in large 12-seat passenger van we call Titus Vandronicus. Anyway we went back to the parking lot and we saw this hole in this car park in Leicester. Down in the hole was a pile of bones. They looked utterly unimportant. But next to the bones was a huge manuscript which turned out to be William Shakespeare's Long Lost First Play, which the Bard wrote at age 17 and then abandoned. We are totally not completely making this up.

And it's a brand-new show?

Yes, it just had its world premiere at the Folger Shakespeare Theatre in Washington DC. For those of you unfamiliar with the Folger Library, it holds the largest collection of Shakespeare crap in the world. And the show was a big hit there, which only goes to prove that there's no accounting for taste.

What was the inspiration behind the play?

We had a private tour of the Folger Library collection several years ago. We saw First Folios, Quartos, etc. And we asked what would be the holy grail - the greatest piece of Shakespeareana that anyone could hope for. They said it would be to find a play written in Shakespeare's own hand. We were unable to find anything like that. So we decided to write it ourselves.

Who would you recommend comes to see William Shakespeare's Long Lost Play?

People who love Shakespeare will like the show. People who hate Shakespeare will love the show. It is not recommended for those with heart ailments, back problems, English degrees, inner-ear disorders and/or people inclined to motion sickness. The Reduced Shakespeare cannot be held responsible for expectant mothers.

What's next for the play after Edinburgh?

There are extensive tours of the UK and USA tour planned to begin in early 2017. After that we hope to make the play into a major Hollywood motion picture starring Charlie Chaplin and Marilyn Monroe.

Timings and ticket information for William Shakespeare's Long Long First Play are available on the edfringe website.

Photo credit: Teresa Wood

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