Guildford Castle Gardens (and Town Centre), Castle Street, Friday 21st June – Saturday 13th July 2024
My bounty is as boundless as the sea, My love as deep
The cast has been announced for Guildford Shakespeare Company’s electric production of Romeo & Juliet. This summer, the famous love story will explode onto the streets of Guildford, with an immersive production that sees the action take place along Guildford High Street every evening. To coincide with their innovative production of Shakespeare’s passionate love story, Guildford Shakespeare Company (GSC) are also carrying out a vital outreach project around knife crime awareness, running knife crime awareness workshops with local schools, and curating a special event at Guildford Cathedral to explore the issues
Taking the titular roles of starcrossed lovers Romeo and Juliet are Christian James (The Enfield Poltergeist, Apple TV; Fighting Irish, Coventry Belgrade; Magic Goes Wrong, West End) and April Hughes (Pride and Prejudice, GSC; Harry Potter and the Cursed Child, The Play That Goes Wrong, West End). Joining them are Laura Matthews (One Man, Two Guvnors, National Theatre; Pride,
Proud Films; The Full Monty, UK tour) as Lady Capulet / Tybalt; GSC regular Chris Porter (An Enemy of the People, Wessex Grove; Sherwood Series 2, BBC; Dom the Play, Assembly Rooms/Theatre Royal Windsor) as Lord Capulet; David Carr (Linck & Mülhahn, Hampstead Theatre; RSC; National Theatre; Old Vic) as Friar Laurence; Emma Manton (Love’s Labour’s Lost/Love’s Labour’s Won, RSC; The Life & Adventures of Nicholas Nickleby, Chichester/West End/Toronto; His Dark Materials, National Theatre) as Nurse / Prince; Luke Latchman (Everybody’s Talking About Jamie, Sunset Boulevard, West End; Cinderella, Amazon Prime) as Benvolio / Paris; and Daniel Burke (The Witcher, Netflix; The Circle, Theatre Royal Bath, Imperium Part I and Part II, RSC) as Mercutio / Lord Montague. The professional cast will also be
joined by a Community Ensemble of adults and young people from four local schools and GSC’s own drama groups.
Audiences will follow the breathtaking action through Guildford as the story unfolds, taking in the iconic Guildhall balcony, historic Abbot’s Hospital and ending in the stunning Castle Gardens. Putting the show on the High Street and using iconic local landmarks will bring an immediacy to this 400-year-old story. Site-responsive shows enable audiences to interact with their shared space in a completely new, accessible and exciting way.
To help raise awareness of the facts around knife crime, GSC are using the production of Romeo & Juliet to bring together a number of organisations for a special event at Guildford Cathedral on 3rd July, while the company will also be visiting the schools taking part in the Youth Ensemble with special workshops.
Cast
Romeo Christian James
Juliet April Hughes
Lady Capulet /Tybalt Laura Matthews
Lord Capulet Chris Porter
Friar Laurence David Carr
Nurse Prince Emma Manton
Benvolio/Paris Luke Latchman
Mercutio/Lord Montague Daniel Burke
X/Facebook @GuildfordBard
Instagram/TikTok @guildfordshakespeare
YouTube @guildfordshakespearecompany
Guildford Shakespeare Company
GSC began 18 years ago, and the first productions were open-air, so they wanted to do something special with our open-air show this year. The company wanted to honor the community that has given it so much, whilst also celebrating its many facets. This is their most ambitious project to date, GSC are proven master of immersive and promenade theatre. In 2023 they staged a murder mystery on a real Boeing 747; in 2022 a promenade production of The Tempest in Guildford’s Stoke Park using 6 different locations; and in 2015 and 2018 a multi venue Alice In Wonderland (starting in the church where Lewis Carroll preached), to celebrate the 150th anniversary of the publication of the story and Carroll’s 150th anniversary of bringing his family to Guildford. In 2023 their Outreach and Education Department created some 24,000 engagement opportunities across Surrey and beyond. 18,000 of these are delivered ‘free-to access’ and includes those living with the challenges of poor mental health, young carers, the elderly, homeless, excluded teenagers and their families, and touring to the least advantaged schools across the South East.
You might also like
Dianne and Vito
