Shakespeare Company Announces its 2019 Programme

Published on: 29 Nov, 2018
Updated on: 29 Nov, 2018

By Alice Fowler

The Guildford Shakespeare Company has announced its 2019 programme, featuring their 40th show, their first London transfer and an intriguing new Guildford venue.

The GSC’s 40th production is Measure for Measure, which will play at Holy Trinity Church, Guildford, in February. The show will build on Shakespeare’s themes of sexual harassment and the abuse of power, with six characters gender-swapping at the interval.

The play will then re-start from the beginning, challenging preconceptions of gender and power. “In the wake of the #MeToo campaign, there has never been a more important time for this shockingly modern play,” says GSC co-founder Matt Pinches.

GSC’s successful 2018 production of Love’s Labour’s Lost

In April, the GSC will mark Shakespeare’s birthday with its eighth series of Sonnet Walks, the GSC Young Company’s third public show and a staged reading of the rarely seen King John.

For the summer, two of Shakespeare’s funniest and best loved-comedies take centre stage in GSC’s annual open-air season. In June the company returns to the beautiful bandstand venue in Guildford Castle grounds (last used by the GSC in 2016) for the irrepressible Twelfth Night. A brand-new venue – Stoke Park Railway at Burchatts Farm – will be used for the hilarious The Merry Wives of Windsor.

The 2019 programme closes with another of Shakespeare’s rarely seen comedies, All’s Well That Ends Well. Part fairy-tale, part odyssey, this will be the company’s first London transfer, following its run in Guildford. Throughout the year the company’s Education and Outreach programmes will continue delivering workshops and performances across the South East.

Measure for Measure runs from February 3-24. Tickets are now on sale, see: www.guildford-shakespeare-company.co.uk, Box Office: 01483 304384.