A new Suffolk-based festival of Shakespeare, which began life at The Cut in Halesworth in May 2019, when the late James Holloway invited Jenny Hall to create a festival which she did that October. SHAKE 2019 offered Verse Workshops, an Art Exhibition, Dance and Directing Workshops, Film, talks, Q&A, Kids Workshops and live performance. Guest appearances from Dame Harriet Walter, playwright/actor Ian Kelly, Professor Grace Ioppolo of Reading University, John Wyver of Illuminations Media, Doctor Bonnie Lander-Johnson of Cambridge University, painters Stuart Pearson Wright and Paul Benny, Director Lucy Bailey, The Three Inch Fools, photographers Bill Jackson and Eamon McCabe and Birmingham Poet Laureate Richard O'Brien (not the Rocky Horror one) helped to make it a great first festival weekend.
Since the start of the Pandemic, SHAKE has gone online, beginning in September 2020 with a zoom verse workshop titled "Romans in Rendham" with Dame Janet Suzman as guest of honour. In November we produced a fully rehearsed reading of The Tempest staring Geraldine James and Rebecca Hall, then a Christmas show called Sonnets & Carols with Janet Suzman and Harriet Walter. Then in March 2021 we presented a fully rehearsed reading of A Midsummer Night's Dream starring Dan Stevens, Rebecca Hall, Luisa Omielan and Robert Hands. The Winter's Tale is next on 31st July and in the Autumn we'll present a new play about Charles Darwin.
