News & Events

The Man Who Was Hamlet
Written by George Dillon with dramaturgy by Pip Utton.

GEORGE DILLON (Berkoff’s Graft & The Gospel of Matthew) teams up with director DENISE EVANS and musician CHARLOTTE GLASSON to create Vital Theatre's 8th production.

New tour dates for 2009 have just been announced, please visit the following website for details:

www.georgedillon.com/theatre/the_man_who_was_hamlet.shtml

“In this harsh world draw thy breath in pain, To tell my story.”
(Hamlet / Edward de Vere)
Strikingly echoing the story and character of Hamlet, scandal and tragedy plagued the life of Edward de Vere, 17th Earl of Oxford, courtier, swordsman, adventurer, playwright and poet.

He killed a servant, abandoned his wife, got his mistress with child, travelled in Italy, was captured by pirates, fought the Armada, was imprisoned in The Tower of London, maimed in a duel and died virtually bankrupt.
He was also hailed as the best of the secret court writers but his work stopped appearing under his own name after the invention of... ‘William Shake-speare’.

“O God! What a wounded name,
Things standing thus unknown, I leave behind me!”
So was de Vere the inspiration for Hamlet...or was he really the author?
And what was the role played by Shakspere, the tax-dodging merchant of Stratford?

“I am dead: Thou livest;
Report me and my cause aright
To the unsatisfied.”
A monstrous apparition comes with a dramatic story to tell and the name 'Shake-speare' will never sound the same again, after award-winning performer George Dillon explores the Shakespeare Authorship Question.

George spoke on Hamlet, Oxford and the Italian Rapier at the Autumn meeting of the De Vere Society on 27th September at Brunel University, and will be speaking on The Man Who Was Hamlet at the Catalyst Club in Brighton on Thursday 9th October.

For further information, please visit:

www.georgedillon.com

www.newventure.org.uk