COMPLETE
WORKS:
TABLE TOP
SHAKESPEARE
EDUCATION PACK
ABOUT FORCED ENTERTAINMENT
Who are Forced
Entertainment?
Forced Entertainment are (above - left to right):
Claire Marshall (performer), Terry O’Connor
(performer), Robin Arthur (performer), Tim
Etchells (Artistic Director & performer),
Cathy Naden (performer) and Richard Lowdon
(designer & performer).
What are Forced
Entertainment?
Forced Entertainment are a group of six artists
who make work in theatre and performance
and tour to audiences all around the world. The
work explores and challenges what theatre
and performance can be and what it can mean
in contemporary life, always pushing and
often breaking the accepted boundaries and
conventions.
“BRITAIN’S
MOST BRILLIANT
EXPERIMENTAL THEATRE
COMPANY”
THE GUARDIAN
Where are Forced
Entertainment based?
Sheffield, United Kingdom.
How long have Forced
Entertainment been together?
The company met at Exeter University and have
been making work together since 1984.
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THERE IS A WORLD ELSEWHERE...
So goes the famous line spoken by
Coriolanus in the original play...
Shakespeare has been translated
into more than 100 languages
throughout the world and remains
today one of the most universally
celebrated authors in history.
In the last 10 years there
have been over 7 professional
productions of Shakespeare and
Shakespeare adaptations in Arabic
and productions of Romeo and
Juliet in more than 24 countries.
Since 1960, Hamlet has been
published or performed in more
than 75 languages!
Shakespeare then, is something of
a relentless force in the world, and
Complete Works is a great chance
for you to experience them all,
condensed and uncomplicated, in
the intimate and unique manner
that Forced Entertainment tell
them.
This is the UK’s most famous
playwright meets one of the UK’s
most exciting contemporary
theatre companies - this is
Complete Works: Table Top
Shakespeare.
Don’t miss it.
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ABOUT COMPLETE WORKS
What is it?
What about the Table Top part?
This is Forced Entertainment’s latest project.
As you can guess from the title - Complete
Works: Table Top Shakespeare - it involves the
complete works of William Shakespeare.
One of the key ideas behind Complete Works
is to take the most famous plays in the world famous for their grand language, grand settings,
grand characters and grand production values
- and introduce a little intimacy and simplicity
to them. And it starts with reducing the stage
down to a simple 1 metre wide x 2 metres long
table top.
Even the poems?
Alright, the complete dramatic works of
Shakespeare - all of his plays (with the
exception of Henry VIII, as there are serious
questions over its true authorship).
How many’s that?
36. Everything from The Two Gentlemen of
Verona to The Two Noble Kinsmen.
So how does it work?
One performer sits at a table. The table top is
the stage. Using everyday, ordinary objects
to represent the characters, and speaking in
everyday, ordinary language, the performer
narrates the story at the heart of the play.
Take a look at the Complete Works trailer.
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SHAKESPEARE SIMPLIFIED
When you think of Shakespeare plays, what
do you think of? Pretty long, sometimes a
little tricky to understand, and unless you’re
a hardcore fan, you’re maybe familiar with
the classics - Hamlet, Romeo and Juliet,
Macbeth - but perhaps not so with ones like
Timon of Athens, Henry VI Part I, II & III and
The Comedy of Errors.
Complete
Works
is
back-to-basics
Shakespeare. It strips away the fancy sets,
lighting, costume, actors and even the
archaic language. What it leaves behind are
the captivating stories at the heart of it all.
Each performer’s role is to be the all-present
storyteller, using the table-top characters in
a kind of lo-fi puppetry, retracing the plot.
They are your guide through Shakespeare’s
canon.
Check out the MAKING OF film with Tim
Etchells here.
There are no five hour long Hamlets to be found
here - each play is condensed down to between
45 minutes and an hour. They are performed in
cycles of three plays per evening and six plays
per day on weekends.
You are free to see as many or as few as you
want - you may like to see those you’re familiar
with or try some you’ve never seen before.
The language is playful, amusing
and easy to understand, making
for a unique and intimate
experience of Shakespeare.
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ALL THE WORLD’S A TABLE TOP STAGE...
Below is the full Complete Works schedule at Teatre Lliure. Take a look and find out
when you can catch your favourites!
Tuesday 4th April
Saturday 8th April
7pm Romeo and Juliet
8pm The Winter’s Tale
9pm Two Gentlemen of Verona
10pm Titus Andronicus
11am Henry VI Part 1
12pm Henry VI Part 2
1pm Henry VI Part 3
4pm Richard III
5pm Coriolanus
6pm The Merry Wives of Windsor
7pm Antony and Cleopatra
8pm Loves Labour’s Lost
9pm The Merchant of Venice
10pm A Midsummer Night’s Dream
Thursday 6th April
Sunday 9th April
7pm Macbeth
8pm Comedy of Errors
9pm Measure for Measure
10pm King Lear
Wednesday 5th April
7pm Much Ado about Nothing
8pm Julius Caesar
9pm Pericles
10pm Hamlet
Friday 7th April
7pm Richard II
8pm Henry IV Part 1
9pm Henry IV Part 2
10pm Henry V
11am Troilus and Cressida
12pm King John
1pm As You Like It
4pm Cymbeline
5pm All’s Well That Ends Well
6pm Timon of Athens
7pm Othello
8pm Twelfth Night
9pm The Taming of the Shrew
10pm The Tempest
Complete Works Selfies
Complete Works casts everyday objects to play the part of the characters in Shakespeare’s plays. All together there are 663
individual objects acting in the 36 plays we present!
From your own home, choose items from either your kitchen, bathroom or garage to create a scene from one of Shakespeare’s
plays. How would you cast it? Make a list of the objects and what characters they play. Describe what’s happening in the
scene, take a picture of your scene and tweet us with it! Don’t forget the hashtag #CompleteWorks!
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TEST YOUR KNOWLEDGE
To quiz or not to quiz, that is the question...
Think you know your Richards from your Henrys? Your Wives of Windsor from your Gentlemen of Verona?
Take our Shakespeare quiz and test your knowledge!
1. Where was William Shakespeare born?
2. Hamlet was the Prince of which European country?
3. What were the names of the two families in Romeo and Juliet?
4. Who prophecised that Macbeth would be King?
5. Which is the only Shakespeare play set in Spain?
6. In A Midsummer Night’s Dream, what happens to Bottom’s head?
7. What is the name of the famous London open-air theatre in which Shakespeare’s plays were
originally performed?
8. Shakespeare wrote plays for the courts of two English monarchs. For one point each, can you
name them?
9. In Much Ado About Nothing, Claudio falls madly in love with Antonio’s daughter. What is her
name?
10. 2016 marked 400 years since Shakespeare’s death, but in what year was he born?
Bonus Question (for all you hardcore Shakespeare fans): What is the name of the ‘lost play’ which
Shakespeare wrote, based on an episode in Miguel de Cervantes’ Don Quixote?
0 - Comedy of Errors
1-4 - “It’s all Greek to me...”
5-7 - Shakespeare Aficionado
8-10 - Upstart Crow
11 - The New Shakespeare
1. Stratford-Upon-Avon / 2. Denmark / 3. Montagues & Capulets / 4. The Three Witches / 5. Love’s Labour’s Lost /
6. It is transformed into the head of an ass / 7. The Globe Theatre / 8. Elizabeth I & James I / 9. Hero / 10. 1564 / Bonus: Cardenio
Answers:
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FURTHER
INFORMATION
A large print version of this pack is
available on request, please contact:
[email protected]
502 Workstation | 15 Paternoster Row
Sheffield | S1 2BX | UK
T: 0114 279 8977 | F: 0114 221 2170
[email protected]
forcedentertainment.com
Forced Entertainment is a limited company
(company no. 2170819, VAT no. 8640 09),
and a registered charity (no. 1049574).
The company is also a member of the
Independent Theatre Council.