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Shakespeare hath returned… to the pub! And that gives us real London Pride. As the natural hubs of many of our communities, pubs are the perfect setting in which to recapture the raucous, accessible and inherently social spirit of a Shakespearean troupe performance. This year is the biggest ever for Shakespeare In The Garden, with 64 shows across 39 pubs from Bristol to Greenwich.
Theatre company Open Bar perform plays in the gardens of pubs around London and the south of England supported by Fuller’s Brewery who invest as full executive producers of the tours. When many performing artists are desperately struggling to find a way to make performances financially viable, Open Bar and Fuller’s have developed a relationship so that the theatre company are not reliant on ticket sales in order to perform their shows. For Fuller’s they offer the venue, the food, pre-performance pub menus and gourmet bar snacks alongside their beers, wines and spirits – and hopefully reach out to new audiences. Fuller’s Brand Manager, Michael Trevena says: “We really hope other brands consider following in our footsteps, as it’s genuinely a win-win situation.”
Open Bar Theatre Present Shakespeare in the Garden at Fuller’s Pubs in London & S.E. England
Nicky Diss and Vicky Gaskin of Open Bar Theatre are used to making innovative theatre in unusual spaces, working with the elements and surroundings, not against them. “As the audience gets more enthusiastic, and often drunk, we are in a pub garden after all, we use it to our advantage. We feed off their energy.” Open Bar Theatre are in the extraordinary position of being able to produce full-scale professional shows regardless of COVID-19 capacity restrictions, maintaining high production values, employing artists and they say, dreaming bigger and better.
This year we all need a “Summer of Love”, and the two plays Open Bar are bringing to the stage are full of comedy, romance and adventure. Open Bar also compose original songs so you can easily follow the plot performing for everyone – reconnecting to the travelling-troubadour-outdoor-everyman essence of an original Shakespeare performance.
“As You Like It” rehearsals at Longfield Hall.
Here’s some crib notes for the shows.
Love’s Labour’s Lost
Four men decide to lock themselves away from all human connection (imagine!) to study and improve themselves, – but they soon find that it really isn’t as simple as that, especially when the Princess of France and her three beautiful friends are coming to stay. Four couples separated by an oath, a “fantastical Spaniard” longing for a forbidden love, misplaced letters, a ridiculous play-within-a-play, a chorus of ukuleles, lightning-fast costume changes and drinks at your fingertips all make for a riotous Shakespeare comedy. Four actors will play all seventeen characters in this mischievous, and rather pertinent, love story.
As You Like It
Rosalind escapes her vicious uncle, dresses as a boy (because this is Shakespeare after all), grabs her cousin and heads for the forest. There she meets a group of shepherds, and the boy she loves who also happens to be on the run from her uncle. Run away with Rosalind and Celia as the Forest of Arden quite literally lands in Fuller’s pub gardens this summer. It may look fresh out of Shakespeare’s day, but it’s as relevant as ever, with original songs to help audiences follow the plot and six actors leaping around an impressive two-storey set.
TICKETS – but hurry up as many dates are already SOLD OUT
