Shakespeare with a TWIST
Most of the weekends in the Hague are exciting but some are so much more – mind-blowing to say the least. All this enthusiasm comes from the fact that the Hague is hosting its own fringe festival dedicated to the voluminous work of William Shakespeare, the Bard of Avon.
The Hague Shakespeare Fringe Festival – Rebooting the Bard is presented by STET, The Hague’s English Theater that is temporarily inhabiting the space of Zaal 3, kindly provided by Theater aan het Spui. During the three day festival, the audience in the Hague will have extraordinary chance to enjoy several Dutch premieres of the acts that already received ***** reviews at the bigger fringe festivals.
Faithful followers of Magpie Digs for Gold already got acquainted with the Friday’s agenda. Saturday and Sunday are enriched with two more shows from Israel and the Netherlands.
Fast-paced comedy Repertory Theatre delivered by the young actors from Israeli company The Mouse and Elephant took the breath out of the lungs of 2012 and 2013 Edinburgh Fringe festival. It received dazzling reviews for the offbeat script of Eldad Cohen and only words of praise for the actors Erez Drigues in the role of neurotic artistic director and Iftach Jeffrey Ophir who plays two characters giving them both the strength they deserve. The plot revolves around young writer meeting Hamlet-obsessed artistic director. The two discuss a possible production of the writer’s debut play. What happens next is hilarious, witty, grotesque, silly, charming. It’s Shakespeare with a twist.
The second performance, space opera Richard III comes from the workshop of Dutch artistic collective Beargarden comprised of director Marvin Beekhuizen and composers Mark Mlyneek and Marc Alberto. This multimedia spectacle which is Beekhuizen’s graduation work is promised to be a “feast for the ears and eyes”.
Late evening on Saturday is reserved for a panel discussion featuring Shakespeare scholars, directors and the actors discussing the influence of different cultures on the understanding and presentation of Shakespeare’s works.
A word of caution, Saturday’s program includes the play Nowadays with Sonar, a cheeky improvisation on The Tempest delivered by the UK based Conker Group. On Sunday, you can see Lost in Denmark presented by Dutch actress Annemarie de Bruijn and the theater company Het Vijfde Bedrijf, from the Netherlands.
Get your daily tickets here for €37.50
Theater aan het Spui, Zaal 3, De Constant Rebequeplein 20A, 21|11|2014 and 22|11|2014 at 5:30pm and 12:30 pm respectively until… the next Hague Shakespeare Festival.