May the Fourth be with Will
Star Wars Shakespeare parody to get live reading
The people behind the weekly Shakespeare online live reading are stepping up to the plate today, May the Fourth, to give a live reading of Ian Doescher’s Star Wars.
The Show Must Go Online is currently at week seven of its weekly read through of Shakespeare’s complete plays, in the order they are believed to have been written, with The Comedy of Errors due for a read through on Wednesday 6 May 2020.
Elliott Borneman is Luke Skywalker
Now the online company with a global cast, fronted by director Rob Myles, is turning to newer things, with an online reading of the Star Wars saga reimagined as an Elizabethan drama penned by William Shakespeare, complete with authentic meter and verse, and theatrical monologues and dialogue by everyone from Darth Vader to R2D2.
The saga of a wise (Jedi) knight and an evil (Sith) lord, of a beautiful princess held captive and a young hero coming of age, Star Wars abounds with all the valour and villainy of Shakespeare’s greatest plays.
“I’m feeling the force”
The whole event will play out online at 9pm BST in the UK, and 4pm EST in the States. It is due to be introduced by Steve Purcell, who is an Associate Professor of Shakespeare and Performance Studies at the University of Warwick.
Tiffanny Abecrombie is Princes Leia
“I am feeling the force” says Elliott Barneman who is to play Luke Skywalker. He has been a Star Wars fan since he was six and never thought in the following 23 years that he would ever get to play “the greatest hero of all time”
Bill Bingham, whose most notable Shakespearean characters include Thomas More, Duncan, Alonso, Gloucester, Jacques and Capulet will be playing Obi-Wan Kenobi.
Free tickets
New York-based actor Tiffany Abercrombie will be Princess Leia Organa and Wirral-born actor Sam Benjamin, known for The War of the Worlds, Dr Who and Peaky Blinders, will play Han Solo.
Sam Benjamin will by Han Solo
Dominic Brewer will be C3PO with Eugenia Low and R2D2; Chewbacca will be played by Stephen Leask and, boo hiss, Darth Vader will be played by Miguel Perez.
Free tickets for the live reading of select passages from Ian Doescher’s William Shakespeare’s Star Wars, presented by Quirk Books and The Show Must Go Online, are available from Eventbrite, here.
The complete reading, with introduction and post-show discussion, is now available to watch on YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XICtSvBPVh8
The full script is available on Amazon:
ENDS
