First full production of Shakespeare’s lost play to take place in Wellington.

Think again if you thought world premieres of William Shakespeare plays were a thing of the past.

In May 2009 the lost tragicomedy The History of Cardenio, by William Shakespeare and John Fletcher, reconstructed by world renowned Shakespeare scholar Professor Gary Taylor, will be presented by third year Theatre students at Victoria University of Wellington.
Based on Lewis Theobald’s Double Falsehood, an 18th century adaptation of Shakespeare and Fletcher’s now-lost original, Professor Taylor’s work takes us closer than ever before to this little-known play.

“How often do you get to see what one genius (Shakespeare) does with the work of another genius (Cervantes)?” says Professor Taylor. “There’s a reason we talk about live theatre, because it’s only in a full-scale performance like this that Shakespeare’s text really comes alive again.”

Live the experience of a 17th century theatre-goer without traveling through time! Professor David Carnegie’s production reconstructs the staging of a renaissance performance; Studio 77 has been transformed into a Jacobean private playhouse.

Professor Carnegie, the play’s director, says: “Plays by Shakespeare and his contemporaries come alive with a special magic when the audience is on all four sides, as at the Globe or Blackfriars, and when the actors acknowledge the presence of the audience”.

A tale of hearts broken and mended, friendships betrayed and rebuilt, sanity lost and found, dukes, shepherds and Don Quixote, joy and misery, laughter and tears, The History of Cardenio will take you on a wild ride through the whole gamut of human emotions.

An international colloquium on The History of Cardenio will be held at Victoria University in conjunction with the world premiere. The colloquium will draw together scholars of Shakespeare, Fletcher, Cervantes, authorship and attribution studies, early modern drama and stagecraft, and also of Restoration and early 18th century adaptation, publishing, theatre history, and the work of Theobald. For more information please see the website www.victoria.ac.nz/cardenio-colloquium

The History of Cardenio will be presented as part of the Shakespeare Compleate Workes Festival 2009.
For a full timetable of events visit http://www.compleateworkes.co.nz/

What: The History of Cardenio, by William Shakespeare and John Fletcher: a creative reconstruction by Gary Taylor, directed by David Carnegie and performed by Victoria University third year Theatre students

When: Five performances only Tuesday 19 to Saturday 23 May 2009, 7.30pm
Where: Studio 77, 77 Fairlie Terrace, Kelburn (Gate 10 of Victoria University)
Tickets: $8 unwaged $15 waged
To book: email theatre@vuw.ac.nz or call 04 463 5359

Seats are strictly limited; book now to avoid missing out!