Milk Bottle Productions presents:
October 2nd – October 13th 2016, Theatre N16
Dear the World,
Thank you so much for all the Deathday gifts, it’s been really lovely. Thank you so much for having me. Thank you. So much. Just one little thing. Could you let me die, please? It’s been four hundred years, could you just let me rest in piece?
Look, everyone’s sort of done the plays now, and they’re great and all, but it’s starting to get a bit tiresome. No one really, ever, needs another production of A Midsummer Night’s Dream. Ever. So, I’ve been speaking through my spirit guide/literary agent Robert Crighton, who’s going to present my problem on my behalf.
Just to be clear: Undead Bard is not, it really isn’t, another of my plays. It really isn’t. It’s about the problem you have with me. And it really is your problem. You need to stop using me to enable your culture.
It’s been a busy year for the Shakespeare buff, but if people listen to the message of this show, just think: you’ll never hear from me ever again. Won’t that be great!
Yours, The Undead Bard
Shakespeare is dead, but he just won’t stop talking. His words are immortal, but they keep changing. Award-winning writer and performer Robert Crighton explores the current boom in Shakespeare and how everything is now devoted to his holy name. Undead Bard is an unholy smorgasbord of play, comedy, and music, pulling apart Shakespeare, Bardolatry, and the modern world, for your pleasure.
“Crighton is a naturally gifted story teller, with presence, and a steeliness to his glare” (Londonist)
Undead Bard isn’t just what’s happening onstage – it is a series of works around the modern issues surrounding Shakespeare and his life. As well as the live shows, there are online audio dramas in preparation – the first, Historic Crimes, is online now.
“All hopeful recipients of this man’s prodigious talent should form an orderly queue…” (East Anglian Daily Times)
Robert Crighton is a multi-award winning playwright and performer, specialising in stories and monologues. A frequent flyer in the world of fringe theatre until about five years ago, Robert returns with his latest explorations of the world of Bardolatry. Robert graduated from Middlesex University in 2003 with a degree in Performing Arts: Drama which he occasionally uses to bolster his self-esteem. On leaving he immediately set up a residency with his occasional theatre company Milk Bottle Productions in various studio spaces in Suffolk where, apart from touring work, he has been based ever since. He is the only entrant in the history of the Lost One-Act Festival to win three awards in successive years; his work is revived in random corners of the world.