and then break it.

This is HAMLET IN LOVE.

And it’s beautiful, heart-breaking and uplifting beyond belief.

But I’m the only one that knows this! So now comes the edit – and with over 200 hours in the can it is going to be quite a task for me and the wonderful John Mister. Which means serious fundraising…

Watch this space!

If you watch this video VERY CLOSELY, you will see the ‘ocular proof’!

Phewph! After a mad flurry of six performances in eight days, we’re nearing the end of the tour. And it has been utterly AMAZING.

Everything has gone right – even the Cornish weather. Unbelievably, after weeks of drizzle and flooding, the skies cleared for our visit to the open-air Minack, and we played to a good crowd in gorgeous, gently fading sunlight. Truly, a magic hour.

Equally memorable was our stay in the wonderful Foxes hotel, with breakfast prepared and beds made by Billy, Laura and Emma, lovely, lovely people who happen to have Down’s Syndrome. Lunch was a long-awaited and richly-deserved fish and chips followed by ice cream, which set us all up perfectly for a smashing performance to a raucous crowd at the Regal Theatre that evening.

For this writer, however, the best performance to date was Friday’s at the Forest Arts Centre in New Milton. The small-ish crowd were knocked off – or rather onto their feet in a standing ovation – by the depth of emotion and superb rhythm that the actors produced. Truly, that was how I wanted it to be when I wrote the adaptation.

Everyone who has seen it has been wowed and entertained, BUT NOT ENOUGH PEOPLE HAVE! Generally, our audiences have been at about 40% capacity (80-100 people). Which is apparently good for drama in today’s world, and especially for a full tour – BUT STILL LEAVES A LOT OF EMPTY SEATS!

We have a performance on Weds 23rd at a local school, then on Sat 26th May a trip to Teddington and the beautiful Normansfield Theatre at Langdon Downe House, the spiritual home of Down’s Syndrome. On Thurs May 31st we’ll be in Guildford playing the Mill Studio at the Yvonne Arnaud, and then we’ll be knuckling down to focus on the main company performances at Winchester Theatre Royal June 28-30th. The final, blow-out date is the Rose Theatre, Kingston on July 4th.

So there are only a few chances remaining to catch this once-in-a-lifetime event. Please don’t miss out – tickets are here: http://www.blueappletheatre.hampshire.org.uk/hamlet.html

This supercool vid is the brand spanking new trailer for the HAMLET TOUR (not the doc – confusing, eh?!).

SO COME WATCH THE PLAY! Please.

Tickets are now on-sale via blueappletheatre.com

Tommy is becoming a muscular, visceral HAMLET. In one scene, he chucks OPHELIA around like a rag doll… Albeit a rag doll led by Katy’s beautiful dancing. Here she is thinking through the steps:

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T-10 days until the first preview performance… and if the actors get anywhere near their potential then this production will be mind-blowing.

Book tickets for the May tour at blueappletheatre.com!

Here’s the taster for the documentary