Introducing Bardolph’s Box

Name: Bardolph

Age: I forget…

Favourite things: Being cheeky. Having fun. Meeting new people. Helping others.

Join me on my roller-coaster ride through Shakespeare’s stories.

Everyone needs a helping hand at times and I’m just the boy for the job!

Who will we meet? Where will we go? Can you get my pals out of a pickle?

One thing’s for sure, we’ll have a whole lot of fun along the way!

Thank you to Robin Kingsland for our original illustration of cheeky chappy Bardolph!

Our first production: Bardolph’s Box, an introduction to Shakespeare’s stories for 8-12 year olds and their families, a small-scale production for libraries, school halls and studio theatres.

Read about creating the show and our adventures on the road here.

Our spring tour included Liverpool, Cheshire and Kent.

In the autumn we visited Gloucestershire, Cumbria and Harlow.

Supported by a grant from Arts Council England, we initially co-produced the show with Unity Theatre, Liverpool.

The production was co-devised by Anna Buckland, Stuart Crowther, Harvey Robinson, Kayleigh Hawkins and Nicola Pollard. We started with a number of Shakespeare’s plays and utilised two Research and Development weeks to select which of the Bard’s creations we wanted to explore. Characters were chosen and their scenes edited and gently adapted. Through a combination of practical exploration and text editing we collected a number of scenes, linked together with our own narrative. Some of this material was tested with two primary schools, which was invaluable. After writing a few additional scenes, we had a script ready to take into rehearsal.

Bardolph’s Gallery

Our pal Brian Roberts joined us at Neston Library, Cheshire, to take some shots of us in performance. These are some of our favourites!

Click on a photo for a larger view.