Selected Works: Table Top Shakespeare

Forced Entertainment are bringing Table Top Shakespeare to The Playhouse in Sheffield from Tuesday 10 November to Thursday 12 November, as part of the Selected Works series. It's a three-night run, with two plays each evening, so you can catch a couple of Shakespeare's big ones in one go.

The whole thing is stripped back to the bare essentials. Two performers take six of Shakespeare's plays and condense them into miniatures, played out on a one-metre table-top. Instead of costumes and sets, they use a collection of ordinary household objects to stand in for the characters — salt shakers, sponges and other everyday things. A performer sits at the table and works through the story with them, letting the storytelling do the heavy lifting rather than the production values. It's a simple, accessible way of looking at the plays, and it doesn't ask you to know anything about Shakespeare beforehand to get it.

The programme is split across the three nights. Tuesday 10 November brings The Two Gentlemen of Verona and Macbeth; Wednesday 11 November is Much Ado About Nothing and Richard III; and Thursday 12 November closes with The Merchant of Venice and The Tempest. If you've got a particular favourite, that'll help you pick your night.

Forced Entertainment have been working this way for more than 40 years, and this is very much in their wheelhouse. Artistic Director Tim Etchells, one of the company's six core members, describes it as a playful, performer-led approach that keeps the playwright alive by treating his work as a living tradition of storytelling. Each performance starts at 7pm, so you'll be home well before midnight.