Date/Time
17th June 2023
2:30pm - 9:30pm
Categories
In celebration of the 400th Birthday of Shakespeare’s First Folio, East London Shakespeare Festival (ELSF) are bringing their riotous & atmospheric production of Shakespeare’s star-crossed lovers to outdoor London parks and community spaces this summer. Set in a familiar modern East London, this story of secret loves and families at war will be vividly brought to life in this contemporary and fast-moving telling.
With ELSF’s trademark contemporary twists and turns, high-energy party numbers and audience participation. The Masquerade Ball will be a party like no other – numbers to music from Lizzo, Dizzee Rascal, Gloria Estefan, Shirley Bassey and Clean Bandit. A festival vibe is encouraged with gates opening an hour before the show, pre-show workshops including mask-making and the opportunity to picnic on site.
Tour & venues-
Riding the high from their last two sold-out summer tours of Twelfth Night in 2022 and A Midsummer Night’s Dream in 2021 – which earned an Off West End Award Nomination for Best Company – ELSF will transform outdoor spaces across Hackney, Waltham Forest, Ilford, Crouch End and Redbridge.
Press Night is at the secret inner-city idyll of Hoxton Community Gardens, which is quite literally Shakespeare’s old stomping ground – a short walk away from Shoreditch’s ‘The Theatre’ where Romeo & Juliet was first performed!
Other venues include the epic-Fellowship Square in Walthamstow, Wanstead Park in all its wild beauty and community hubs Higham Hill Hub and Leyton, Jubilee Park. ELSF are also dipping their toes into North London for the first time – turning Hornsey School For Girls’ playing fields into a theatre venue!
Community Engagement Programme:
An extensive community engagement programme offering participatory activities to local residents will run alongside the tour.
The production will feature a community cast of local residents and they will appear in 10 shows at two of the venues (Higham Hill & Fellowship Square), pre-show mask making workshops for younger audience members, Pay-What-You-Can performances and heavily reduced school matinees for local schools including a 20-minute pre-show workshop. The production will also feature an Apprentice Actor – a local 18 – 25 year old selected to join the cast for their professional debut and offered mentoring throughout.
Rosie Ward, Director (and co-artistic director & Producer of ELSF) comments:
I am thrilled to be directing this production of Romeo and Juliet. Ursula and I started East London Shakespeare Festival in 2020 in the midst of the pandemic and since then, I have produced, acted and directed our fabulous community cast. So, it is very exciting to be taking on the role of Director, and “Romeo and Juliet” has been such a great one to get my teeth into. It thrills me as a play as there is such an intense range of emotions: love and hate, fear and anticipation, comedy and tragedy.
I cannot wait to invite you to Verona-come-East London, to fall in love with this story of woe (& wit) of Juliet and her Romeo.
Ursula Early, co-artistic director & producer of ELSF, Comments
Romeo & Juliet is taking a bit of leap into the unknown for us – so far, we’ve done the big comedy hitters, fairly safe ‘family friendly’. So, in some senses R&J is a bit of a risk – they all die (!) – how do you make that fun and family friendly! But, it’s also the Shakespeare play that everyone (young and old) know, it’s universal and there’s a reason for that, the story is timeless – love, passion, betrayal, violence, and families at war, it is so close to home, it only needs a nudge to comfortably fit into a recognisable and contemporary East London.
We are also, of course, going to put our ELSF stamp on it, wringing every last ounce of fun and joy you can get out of a tragedy. Our masquerade ball will be epic – with a medley number to some absolute foot-stomping classics (Tina Turner, Dizzee Rascal, Lizzo, Gloria Estefan) let’s get the party started.
Listing information-
Title: East London Shakespeare Festival presents Romeo & Juliet
Running Time: 120 minutes approx. (including interval).
Dates: 16th June – 13th August 2023
Various days Wed-Sun, 3pm & 7.30pm School matinees, 12.30pm
Access Performances / Relaxed:
All performances are relaxed but have relaxed performances:
Friday 16th June at 12.30pm (Higham Hill Hub)
Friday 23rd June at 12.30pm (Leyton, Jubilee Park)
Friday 7th July at 12.30pm (Fellowship Square)
Notes: Matinees: Suitable for all ages & family friendly, Evening shows 7+ recommended but all welcome
Box office: Tickets are available from www.elsf.uk
Tickets from £7.50 – £15
Social Media: @EastLondonShak1 (Twitter), @eastlondonshakespearefestival (Facebook), #EastLondonShakespeareFestival, #OutdoorShakespeare, #ELSFTwelfthNight, #WFCulture, #HelloAgainHackney
Performance Dates:
16th – 18th June Higham Hill Hub, Walthamstow, London E17 5QT
22nd – 25th June Leyton Jubilee Park, Seymour Road, London E10 7BL
29th – 30th June Hoxton Community Gardens, Hoxton Street/Stanway, N1 6RG
5th – 9th July Fellowship Square, Waltham Forest Town Hall, Forest Road, E17 4JF
15th – 16th July Wanstead Park, Warren Road, London E11 2LS
21st – 23rd July Highams Park, The Charter Road, London IG8 9RF
27th – 30th July Clissold Park. Green Lanes, London N16 9HJ
2nd – 3rd Aug Valentines Park Next to: Valentine’s Park Cafe, Ilford, IG1 4SB,
4th – 6th Aug Hornsey School For Girls, Inderwick Rd, N8 9JF
5th – 7th August Springfield Park, Pavilion Café – South East Springfield Park, E5 9EF