September 22, 23 and 24, 2023.
A York theatre project is celebrating its 22 year history with music. The York Shakespeare Project was set up in 2001 with the aim of performing all the Bard’s plays in York. It completed that initial mission last year, with a production of The Tempest that toured North Yorkshire before a final performance at York Theatre Royal. Now the project is marking that achievement with Shakespeare’s Songs, revisiting the original music from several of those plays – and introducing some new songs.
Nick Jones, who devised the show, said ‘original music by local composers has often been a highlight of YSP’s productions and we thought it deserved to be heard again, in a light-hearted revue’.
Among the performers are Maurice Crichton, a York theatre stalwart last seen as Sir WIlliam Malever in ‘Sovereign’, Emma Scott (Lucrece), musical theatre regular Tracey Rea and other cast members from The Tempest and the Project’s 2008 production of Twelfth Night.
The music is by Nick, Fergus McGlynn and York International Shakespeare Festival director, Philip Parr. Shakespeare’s Songs will be performed on 22 and 23 September in the atmospheric setting of York’s oldest church, St Mary’s Bishophill Junior, and on 24 September in the Super Sustainable Centre in Derwenthorpe – two buildings separated by 1000 years of history.
Tickets from www.yorkshakespeareproject.org/shakespeares-songs/ or, if available, on the door.
Notes: Shakespeare’s Songs will feature songs and instrumental music from productions of: As You Like It (2008), Troilus and Cressida (2011), Twelfth Night (2014) and The Tempest (2022), with new songs from The Winter’s Tale and Love’s Labours Lost.
Contact: Nick Jones nickjonesyork@gmail.com