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The BIG Secret Live - I am Shakespeare - Webcam Daytime Chat-room Show

A Comedy of Shakespearean identity crisis
Conceived and written by Mark Rylance and John Dove
 
A dark and stormy night. In his garage in Kent, Frank Charlton - a schoolteacher who threw away a promising academic career by daring to question the authorship of the Shakespeare plays - prepares for his daily broadcast. Through his subversive internet show, Frank continues to explore his obsession with the authorship, whilst attempting to dodge the ‘helpful’ attentions of his nutty neighbour Barry.
 
Today, however, via the dramatic interaction of a lightning storm and the collective unconscious of the world-wide-web, Frank finds himself confronted with the real William Shakespeare… and the real Francis Bacon…  then Edward de Vere, Earl of Oxford… and finally the real Mary Sidney…
 
Mayhem ensues, as Frank tries to interview each of the four characters from the past - all of whom claim they wrote the plays - whilst his neighbour keeps interrupting and the police arrive investigating a mysterious body.
 
Who is the real author? Can Frank restrain himself from murdering Barry long enough to take this historic opportunity and find out? Or will the police arrest him first? And what does Kirk Douglas have to do with all this?
 
Mark Rylance was formerly Artistic Director of Shakespeare’s Globe Theatre (1995 - 2005).

Tour dates and Venues

Following the very successful launch at the Minerva Theatre, Chichester, which has generated a generous amount of coverage in the national media, the play now begings a tour of the following theatres:

Festival Malvern
September 10-15

Grange Road
Malvern
WR14 3HB
Box Office: 01684 892277
www.malverntheatres.co.uk

Arts Cambridge
September 17-22

6 St Edward's Passage
Cambridge
CB2 3PJ
Box Office: 01223 503333
www.cambridgeartstheatre.com

Playhouse Oxford
September 24-29

Beaumont Street
Oxford
OX1 2LW
Box Office: 01865 305305
www.oxfordplayhouse.com

Warwick Arts Centre Coventry
October 1- 6

The University of Warwick
Gibbet Hill Road
Coventry
CV4 7AL
Box Office: 024 7652 4524
www.warwickartscentre.co.uk

Playhouse Liverpool
October 9-13

Williamson Square
Liverpool
L1 1EA
Box Office: 0151 709 4776
www.everymanplayhouse.com

 

 

 


The Man Who Was Hamlet
Who really wrote Hamlet? Award-winning performer George Dillon returns to Edinburgh after six years with his new play, The Man Who Was Hamlet, which tells the comical, tragical, romantic and utterly scandalous history of Edward de Vere, 17th Earl of Oxford, the leading alternative candidate for the authorship of the works of ‘William Shakespeare’.

Click for details

Contested Will: Who Wrote Shakespeare?
by James Shapiro
Faber £20 pp360

At long last, a noted Stratfordian has got round to doing what Oxfordians have been asking them to do for years and published a considered critique of the Shakespeare Authorship Question.

Click for details