The Bacchanals present RICHARD III by William Shakespeare

The Bacchanals Present:
RICHARD III
Written by William Shakespeare / Directed by David Lawrence

THE BACCHANALS CELEBRATE THEIR 15TH BIRTHDAY!

The Smiling Assassin defies the odds and the pollsters to rise from the grave, stronger than ever! Watch him laugh in the face of his country as he lies, spies, derps, planks, triple-handshakes and murders his way to the top!!!

Your unstoppable pals The Bacchanals are back (back? they never went away – you may not know it but there’s one behind you right now, like some hovering Death Eater!) to celebrate their 15th birthday with their 30th show, a brand new production of Richard III, Shakespeare’s classic tale of how a whole country can ignore the evidence and elect a lying villain as their leader! Wherever there is theatrical or social injustice, The Bacchanals are just waiting to make a play about it and say, “Can’t you see what’s wrong with the world the way we all can, with our university degrees and bachelorses of performing artses? Ka-Pow! Bang! Punch! Ouch!”

The Bacchanals are thrilled to be returning to BATS Theatre in its new-old home at 1 Kent Terrace and to be kicking off the 2015 theatrical year with a show in the same tragical-comical-historical-political vein as their productions of Dean Parker’s Once We Built A Tower, Jessica Swale’s Blue Stockings and Shakespeare’sCoriolanus. “For our 15th birthday and our 30th show we wanted to do something really special,” says director David Lawrence. “I know, everyone was expecting us to be doing a stage adaptation of Dirty Politics. And we did consider a version of Macbeth where David Cunliffe is determined to hang onto power at any cost.” But in terms of combining political conspiracy with a celebratory and festive atmosphere, it’s hard to do better than Richard III. One of Shakespeare’s earliest plays, Richard III has been enduringly popular for the last 400 years, not least because of the controversy over Shakespeare’s portrayal of the historic king as a murderous tyrant, a controversy last year’s discovery of the king’s remains in a Leicester carpark has not yet been able to put to rest.

Richard III stars Kirsty Bruce as Queen Elizabeth, Alice May Connolly as Lord Vaughan & the Second Murderer, Uther Dean as Lord Grey & Sir John Norfolk, Joe Dekkers-Reihana as Earl Rivers & Richmond, Alex Greig as Clarence & Hastings, Brianne Kerr as the Duchess of York, Salesi Le’ota as the Duke of Buckingham, Michael Ness as Lord Stanley, Hilary Penwarden as Tyrrel & the First Murderer,Jean Sergent as Catesby, Ellie Stewart as Queen Margaret, Michael Trigg as Dorset & Brackenbury, Ania Upstill as Lady Anne, and Aidan Weekes as Edward IV, the Mayor of London and the Bishop of Ely. Bacchanals artistic director David Lawrence (“the Nick Cave of NZ Classical Theatre” – Salient) takes on the title role of Dick the Shit. The company are also joined by five younger actors in the children’s roles!

Let us turn your winter of discontent into a glorious summer!

Richard III
Written by William Shakespeare & Directed by David Lawrence
The Dome, BATS Theatre, 1 Kent Tce, Wellington
Tuesday 13 January – Saturday 31 January at 7pm (no show Sundays/Mondays).
Tickets: $20/15/14
Bookings: (04) 802-4175 / www.bats.co.nz
$12 previews on 13 & 14 January

The Bacchanals are a multi-award winning Wellington-based theatre company, founded in 2000 and dedicated to making theatre accessible to all be it economically, intellectually or geographically. They want theatre to remain a place for social, spiritual and psychological debate but more than anything they just want audiences to have a great time in their company. Their work has ranged from the Ancient Greeks to Shakespeare to new New Zealand works and the NZ premieres of current overseas plays. http://www.thebacchanals.net/

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