Our Venus & Adonis
April 20th – 21st 2024
Press release: Warwick 3rd April 2024
Playbox Theatre’s renowned Shakespeare Young Company was created in 2006, to enable young people to gain confidence and performance opportunity in Shakespeare and his contemporaries. From the beginning, inspired by Jan Kott’s seminal book, Shakespeare Our Contemporary, the company has presented work across a wide variety of spaces, from outdoor gardens to the depths of a medieval crypt.
Back at the company’s base, The Dream Factory in Warwick, SYC will now stage a fusion project, inspired by the popular poem, Venus & Adonis, for presentation in a new space, constructed in the theatre’s expansive front of house area. The Cube is an in-the-round structure, reflecting the ambience of fashion show catwalk, alongside a cabaret setting.
Venus & Adonis was written by Shakespeare during the theatre closures in 1590s. Unable to play on the open arenas of London, the playwright created an original work taking the story of love-obsessed Venus, with reluctant Adonis from Ovid’s Metamorphosis. This has become the source of much drama, poetry and art in the Renaissance. Dedicated to his patron, Henry Wriothesley, 3rd Earl Of Southampton, the poem, with its erotic content, became a huge cult read and sold many copies.
The great Renaissance painters, Titian and Botticelli, amongst others, were drawn to the stories of Ovid and developed their own interpretations.
This April, the special even created by Shakespeare Young Company will take Venus & Adonis as a starting point for a collage of text, poetry, music, song and dance…as well as a little table magic, original themed mocktails and pizza for the audience!
The event is a lighthearted spring evening semi-cabaret, where audiences will surround The Cube as the company explore areas of Shakespeare and the source material.
SYC member, Meera Palta, has designed the costumes for the event, and these are inspired by Botticelli and his contemporaries, drawing upon the fashion and prints of the time.
Venus & Adonis performance dates:
Saturday 20th April at 7pm
Sunday 21st April at 6pm
Tickets are available from: https://www.ticketsource.co.uk/playboxtheatre/e-bkvoeg
Booking information: https://www.playboxtheatre.com/events/venus-and-adonis/
For further information: www.playboxtheatre.com
For interviews with the director or cast members, and for photographs, please email emily@playboxtheatre.com
About Playbox Theatre:
Playbox Theatre is a creative organisation creating theatre, artistic training and performance for and with young people. The company’s members age from 3 – 19 years.
