William Shakespeare wrote Venus and Adonis during the Plague epidemic of 1593 when London’s theatres were forced to close. He was 28 years old and his career as a playwright had barely got off the ground. Venus and Adonis was his first work to be published and was an instant bestseller, its huge popularity due in no small part to its erotic passages and vivid narrative.
MarMaxTheatricals LTD present
William Shakespeare’s
Venus and Adonis
created and performed by
Christopher Hunter
director David Salt
Riverside Studios, London
Tuesday 9 May – Sunday 21 May
In 1592 Shakespeare’s career as a dramatist had barely got off ground when a severe outbreak of the plague forced London’s theatres to close. He turned his hand to poetry and the result was Venus and Adonis, an epic poem that became his first published work and the best seller of its day!
Its commercial success was due in no small part to its more erotic passages which describe how, over a period of 24 hours, the sexually experienced Venus tries to seduce a young, virginal boy.
Is Venus and Adonis a soft-focus centrefold in the playbook of Elizabethan erotica? Or is it a portrait of sexual power, love, lust and its catastrophic consequences?
As we emerge from another period where London’s theatres were all shut for an extended period due to a global medical emergency, Christopher Hunter’s brilliant one-man dramatisation takes us on a journey through Shakespeare’s vibrant language and into the poem’s pulsating dark heart.
Christopher Hunter said: “I read the poem and fell in love with its incredibly vivid language and pounding narrative. It is seldom performed, but the performer in me found Venus and Adonis extremely exciting – it was clearly the work of a dramatist and it had theatre at its core – so I set out to explore the possibility of turning the poem into a one-man play.
“As I worked on the piece, researching it and exploring its themes, a darker and more sinister narrative started emerging from the soft-focus of Elizabethan erotica – and this narrative told the story of a young boy who, walking out of his front door one morning, is sexually assaulted and never returns home. This is the story that I want to tell. The more I understood the dark heart of the poem, the more I altered my approach. The deeper I worked, the more shocking the narrative became.
“Venus and Adonis will entertain, shock, thrill, provoke, challenge and surprise you. Just as working on the poem did me.”
Produced by MarMaxTheatricals LTD.
Christopher Hunter (Actor/Writer)
Christopher Hunter began as an actor playing Malcolm in David Halliwell’s ‘Little Malcolm and his Struggle Against the Eunuchs’, directed by John Caird. From there he joined the National Theatre Company as it prepared to open its new home on the South Bank. He appeared in the first new play produced there – Howard Brenton’s ‘Weapons of Happiness’, directed by David Hare, and assisted in the creation of the National Theatre Youth Theatre, before leaving to perform leading roles with the RSC.
Subsequent years combined film work (including the lead In Nothing To Lose, the award winning Maestro, Nic Roeg’s Aria, Merchant-Ivory’s Maurice, Christopher Columbus) with leading roles in theatre (including Edinburgh Traverse, Sheffield Crucible, Oxford Playhouse, NT and the RSC). He joined Michael Bogdanov and Michael Pennington in the English Shakespeare Company’s multi-award winning Wars of the Roses world and UK tour, taking in the Far East, the USA and Europe – while opening Tokyo’s Globe Theatre on the way. Also for the ESC he directed Harold Pinter’s The Dumb Waiter at Chicago’s Auditorium Theatre, which later went on to play in Berlin and London’s Young Vic. TV includes Sherlock, Mr Selfridge, Dracula, Chalk, East Enders and Silent Witness. Christopher appeared in the West End in Peter Whelan’s award-winning play The Herbal Bed directed by Michael Attenborough. He founded The Noontide Sun, producing and starring in Patrick Süskind’s one-man play The Double Bass in London to great critical acclaim.
Christopher’s adaptation and performance of Shakespeare’s Venus and Adonis was first seen at the Edinburgh Festival Fringe in 2017 where it thrilled audiences and critics alike. Recently, he wrote and directed States of Mind for Extant (London) working with severely visually impaired performers. Christopher regularly works with students in leading UK drama schools directing final year productions and black box projects (contemporary & classical genres). He has led workshops on Venus and Adonis,performing Shakespeare and verse speaking.
MarMaxTheatricals LTD – Producer
MarMaxTheatricals LTD is the UK arm of MarMaxMedia LLC, based in the US. The partners Alexander ‘Sandy’ Marshall and Mitchell Maxwell collectively have 100 years of experience in the production of theatre, film, and television. Their productions include: ‘Network’ starring the Tony Award-winning Bryan Cranston, Martin McDonough’s ‘Hangmen’ (Tony nomination), ‘American Buffalo’ starring Laurence Fishburne, Sam Rockwell, Darren Criss (Tony nomination), ‘Funny Girl’, ‘The Old Man & The Pool’ starring Mike Birbiglia, Adrienne Kennedy’s ‘Ohio State Murders’ starring six-time Tony Award winner Audra McDonald and, currently, ‘Pictures from Home’ starring Nathan Lane, Zoë Wanamaker and Danny Burstein. Additionally, Drama Desk Award-Winners Martha Clarke’s ‘Garden of Earthly Delights’, Scott McPherson’s ‘Marvin’s Room’, the ground-breaking hip-hop performance piece, ‘Jam on The Groove’, the Broadway revival of the classic musical comedy, ‘Damn Yankees’, starring Bebe Neuwirth and Victor Garber, where they later brought the legendary Jerry Lewis to Broadway (in his Broadway debut) to replace Mr. Garber. Following a triumphant run on Broadway, the production starring Mr. Lewis toured the US for two years and later played the Adelphi Theatre in London, garnering three Olivier nominations. ‘Blues in the Night’ nominated for the Olivier for Best Musical, as well as the Tony award in the same category. Their productions have been nominated for multiple Tony, Olivier, Drama Desk, and Outer Critic Awards and have won such honours in every iteration. In 2000, they recieved the Pulitzer Prize for Drama for the play, ‘Dinner with Friends’, During lockdown, they presented the first Brodway style podcast of the acclaimed novel ‘Little Did I Know,’ with music by three-time Tony winner, Doug Bestermen and lyrics by Grammy, Oscar, and Emmy winner, Dean Pitchford, where it soared to number 3 on Apple and remained in the top 40 for over 6 consecutive months.
LISTINGS INFO
MarMaxTheatricals LTD
present
Venus and Adonis
created and performed by
Christopher Hunter
director
David Saltss
Riverside Studios
101 Queen Caroline Street
Hammersmith
London
W6 9BN
Tuesday 9 May – Sunday 21 May
Monday -Saturday at 7.30pm
Wednesday and Saturday at 2.30pm
Tickets:
General Admission £15.00, concessions £10
(plus £1.50 per ticket booking fee)
Age recommendation
16+
Box office
9am-9pm
020 8237 1010
https://riversidestudios.co.uk/
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