Star-studded night at Shakespeare North will support our next generation of local talent

Famous names from stage and screen are coming together for a special night at Shakespeare North Playhouse supporting our next generation of local talent.

Twenty actors and writers, including Frank Cottrell-Boyce, James Nelson-Joyce, Les Dennis and Julie Hesmondhalgh, will take to the stage for the theatre’s first ever fundraising Gala Night on Saturday January 31.

They’ll each perform one of Shakespeare’s sonnets, in their own chosen style, so audiences will see them delivered with a twist and hear them in a Scouse accent.

The night will also feature music and performance, as well as a a silent auction – each of the artists will sign their sonnet and there’ll be a piece signed by every artist that people can bid to take home.

Proceeds will go towards the work of Shakespeare North in championing and nurturing artists and companies through the artist development programme, ORIGIN8, and the Shakespeare North Young Company.

Siobhan Noble, head of producing at the theatre, says the event is all about artists supporting artists, especially at a time when it’s increasingly hard for young people from a working class background to break into the industry.

She explains:

“Since we opened we’ve always had our ‘audience with’ series, which is usually working class artists who come and talk about their careers and their pathways into the arts.

“We’ve had some absolutely amazing high-profile names through that programme who know what it’s like to get into the industry and make it, and the one thing they always want to know is what we’re doing to support the next generation.

“Working class representation is a real issue, there are only 7% of people from working class backgrounds across the creative industries, so it’s a big thing for us to make sure we’re supporting artists of the future from Knowsley and the wider Liverpool City Region.

“We’re here and we need to be providing opportunities for our neighbours.”

Siobhan says the Gala Night will be unlike anything Shakespeare North audiences have seen before.

“We’ve not approached the sonnets yet so the 20 artists involved will each present one of Shakespeare’s most celebrated sonnets with a bit of chat about why they’re part of the evening.

“We’re working with director James Dacre, who’s been amazingly generous with his time in supporting the night, and together we decided which ones we should include.

“It was such a difficult decision, so in the end we thought, if this was an Oasis gig, what’s the Wonderwall of sonnets? What do we need to have in there? We’ve chosen the ones we know people will love and recognise, the crowd-pleasers, and also some people might not know so well.

“We’re mixing some of them up as well so there’ll be a few done with a bit of a twist, and we’re introducing sonnet-related songs as well throughout the night, with jazz artists Olivia Frances Brown and Micky Dunne who are both Liverpool-based and brilliant.”

Siobhan says audiences can expect familiar Shakespeare words delivered in unique ways.

“Everyone has been given free rein to perform them how they like, so they’ve been directed on technical elements but how they present it is up to them.

“Les Dennis, for instance, was in Twelfth Night for us playing Malvolio and it was just heartbreakingly beautiful so we’re really looking forward to seeing what he does, and we’ve also got James Nelson-Joyce, Mike Noble and Kevin Harvey from This City Is Ours so we’re going to have the sonnets in Scouse accents.

“That’s really important to me because I think it really practices what we preach, having northern voices deliver the words that have been kind of taken away from what they originally were. Shakespeare is often seen as an upper class pastime but that’s not what it was, he was creating work for working class audiences so we want to have it delivered in regional accents. 

“Everyone taking part has been so generous in getting behind what we’re doing because of the cause it’s supporting so I think it’s going to be a very special night.”

Find out more on the Shakespeare North Playhouse website.

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