Black Theatre Live Announces Britain's First All-black HAMLET

Black Theatre Live's fourth touring show will be Britain's first all-black HAMLET. This co-production with Watford Palace Theatre and Stratford Circus Arts Centre is directed by Jeffery Kissoon and will tour from September 2016. The eight-venue consortium's previous productions include Macbeth, She Called Me Mother and The Diary of a Hounslow Girl.

Mark Norfolk adapts the play from Shakespeare's original folio edition into a fast-moving, contemporary version that gets to the heart of a young man's dilemma. His adaptation sees Denmark as a modern Black Empire of England where an intelligent young student returns to discover the world he once knew has crumbled. Faced with the new king's change in regime and religion, and implored to defend what is left of his father's decaying legacy, Hamlet now faces the greatest moral challenge - to kill or not to kill.

Jeffery Kissoon said: "In Hamlet we reflect on the Black experience, anxieties and sensibilities in a modern era. Shakespeare's wonderfully rich text explores a tormented humanity, asking the searching questions of life and death faced head-on by a young Black Prince. 'Remember me' is the theme of this production: by saying 'Remember me', the ghost of Hamlet's father is urging Hamlet to remember not just him, but his background, heritage and all those that came before him."

Jeffery Kissoon's theatre credits include playing Antony opposite Kim Cattrall's Cleopatra at the Liverpool Playhouse, Julius Caesar in Greg Doran's production for the Royal Shakespeare Company and many Shakespearean and many classical roles under directors including Robert Lepage, Peter Brook, Peter Hall, Simon McBurney, Calixto Bieto, Nicholas Hytner and Trevor Nunn on productions such as Hamlet, Othello, Macbeth, The Tempest, The Caucasian Chalk Circle, The Mahabharata, Waiting for Godot and The Crucible. His film credits include Star Wars: The Force Awakens, Ham & The Piper, Dirty Pretty Things, Hamlet and on Television, Agatha Christie, Dalziel and Pascoe, Holby City, Casualty, Space 1999 and the recurring roles of Judge Anthony Abego in EastEnders in 2015, and Mr Kennedy in Grange Hill. As a director his work includes Ave Africa, an adaptation of Ralph Ellison's Invisible Man, The Meeting and Mark Norfolk's plays Where The Flowers Grow, Naked Soldiers and Knock Down Ginger.

Mark Norfolk writes for film, theatre and radio. His recent films include Shadow Gene, Ham and the Piper and Crossing Bridges, and theatre work includes Blair's Children at the Cockpit Theatre, Wrong Place for Soho Theatre, Where The Flowers Grow, Naked Soldiers and Knock Down Ginger for the Warehouse Theatre. In 2015 he became the first recipient of the Alfred Fagon Award's Roland Rees Bursary.

The three-­year programme from Black Theatre Live, now in its second year, brings high-quality performances from culturally diverse perspectives to venues across the country. The initiative is a partnership of Tara Arts, Derby Theatre, Queen's Hall Arts (Hexham), the Lighthouse (Poole), Theatre Royal Bury St. Edmunds, Theatre Royal Margate, Stratford Circus Arts Centre (London) & Key Theatre (Peterborough).

Find more information and book tickets at www.blacktheatrelive.co.uk

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