THE Australian Shakespeare Company, based in Melbourne, will bring players from its graduates’ program to Swan Hill in May to perform a modern take on a Shakespeare classic Twelfth Night.
This will be the only performance in regional Victoria, with the ensemble then heading to the Czech Republic to perform the production at the Prague Fringe Festival.
The graduate program is a 12-week training course in which participants learn about Shakespeare and various other acting methodologies.
Open to anyone 18 years old or older, it has been operating since 2016 and fills a gap in the world of the Shakespeare training that had previously been aimed at children and teenagers.
Co-director Claire Nicolls said the training aspect of the program then fed into the production of a 70- to 90-minute Shakespeare show.
“This year we are bringing it to Swan Hill, which is really exciting,” Ms Nicolls said.
“There are 12 cast members ranging in age from 18 up to 36 years old this year.
“Sometimes we have people much older than that – we have had a people in their 60s in the past.
“It is really fun to have a diverse range of ages in the group, getting the varying degrees of experience as well.
“This year we are doing Twelfth Night, which is a really fun Shakespeare production beginning with a shipwreck which we are setting in a tropical island resort set off the coast of Queensland – a bit of a Gilligan’s Island feel.”
Ms Nicolls described the show as very wacky, with a lot of colourful characters and a loose 1970s theme – a bizarre story that was really entertaining.
The show will be performed at Swan Hill Memorial Hall at 7.30pm on Saturday May 18.
Tickets are available from Swan Hill Town Hall box office or thbookings@swanhill.vic.gov.au.
