Following on from last year's production of King Lear starring Brian Blessed, this February, the award-winning Guildford Shakespeare Company (GSC) kick off their 10th Anniversary Year with Shakespeare's great late play, The Winter's Tale, to be staged in Guildford's Holy Trinity Church.
The company which has built a reputation on high quality Shakespeare and critically acclaimed adaptations of classic works of literature, will present Shakespeare's unsettling work of contrasts: winter and summer; old and young; fantasy and reality in a production to be directed by Caroline Devlin and designed by Neil Irish.
Staged in the newly restored church on Guildford High Street, the production will be set around 1860, with the Sicilian royal family emulating the power and majesty of Victorian England, whilst Bohemia will reflect the colour and vibrancy of the Indian sub-continent.
Caroline Devlin and Neil Irish are joined by
Sound Designer Matt Eaton, who also worked on the last two winter seasons Holy Trinity. The cast includes Tracy Brabin as Paulina, Selma Brooke as Perdita, Sarah Gobran as Hermione, Harmage Singh Kalirai as Old Shepherd, Robert Mountford as Polixenes, Gideon Turner as Leontes, Matt Pinches as Camillo/Cleomenes and
Chris Porter Antigonus/Autolycus
Taking inspiration from The Winter's Tale, and the ambitions for the theatre company's future, GSC's 10th Anniversary programme has been given the theme of 'New Beginnings', and will also include The Comedy of Errors and Much Ado About Nothing to be staged later in the year. 2016 follows the company's most successful year to date with nearly 15,000 audience members and wall to wall sell out performances.
Guildford Shakespeare Company is a site responsive theatre company specialising in Shakespeare. It uses found spaces, local landmarks, heritage sites and vacant buildings in and around Guildford to create dynamic and challenging productions. In so doing the company has helped to develop and nurture community interest in these sites, both culturally and economically and has supported improvements to venues through continued, varied use and sustaining the town's cultural heritage. Their mission is to re-ignite peoples' passion for live theatre, Shakespeare and great story-telling. Together, with leading industry artists, over the past decade they have produced 27 home-grown dynamic and inspiring productions that have been accessible to the widest possible audience.
In the last 12 months alone, GSC have staged 140 live performances with productions of King Lear starring the mighty
Brian Blessed and original adaptations of The Wind in the Willows and Alice in Wonderland.
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