ARTS & CULTURE
JULIUS CAESAR
of the best. We’ve worked on voice, movement and many other themes.” On Saturday 13 July, Richard performs a remarkable solo version of Hamlet , in a tour de force of what many consider Shakespeare’s greatest play, also at The Leper Chapel. Over the next two weekends at the same venue, he performs storytelling of the strange and uncanny. The Demon Lover , on 20 July, features tales from some of the greatest masters and mistresses of the genre. Tales of Mystery and Imagination , on Sunday 21 July, has fascinating stories by the undisputed king of the macabre, Edgar Allan Poe. Ghost Stories is one of in situ:’s most popular performances, told and sung by Richard on Saturday 27 July. On the 28th, catch Beasts and Super-Beasts , which celebrates the work of HH Munro – known as Saki – one of the greatest storytellers of the 20th century. Tickets for performances, which start at 8pm, are £15, available via insitutheatre.co.uk
Environmental theatre group in situ: returns with not simply a performance of Shakespeare’s powerful political drama Julius Caesar , but a creative response to it, in the first of several productions in July. Using Shakespeare’s original text in unusual and thought-provoking ways, in situ: creates Julius Caesar Project , a compelling walkround production at The Leper Chapel on Newmarket Road. Splicing in texts from Plutarch among others, with extended voice and complex choreographies, it circulates around the violent death of a charismatic leader and its catastrophic consequences. Democracy under threat, conspiracy, assassination, riots, death squads, civil war. The walls of the ancient and atmospheric Leper Chapel echo with cries, whispers and curses. Caesar’s angry ghost wants blood. Richard Spaul, director, says: “There are very few genuine ensemble theatre groups around nowadays and I am thrilled to be working with one
An annual festival of new writing and work for the stage, HOTBED returns to Cambridge Junction from 19 to 21 July. Offering a weekend’s worth of theatre, which includes world premieres, international guest performances, new plays and interactive workshops, the festival is run by Menagerie Theatre Company, a leading voice for new writing talent in the East of England. On the bill this year, see Bliss by Fraser Grace: an epic story set in Russia in 1920 which explores what it is to love in times of immense hardship. A new production of Boulder , meanwhile, offers a reimagining of Greek myth told through puppetry, while the original and moving Two Comrades comes to Cambridge straight from Prague. There’s also new plays and works-in-progress fromMenagerie associates including Lucy Crowe, Steve Waters and Lucy Sheerman, plus exciting workshops and community performances including Cambridge’s social theatre company, Acting Now. junction.co.uk HOTBED THEATRE FEST I VAL
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