SHAKESPEARE’s Rose Theatre Company will make its international debut in Manila in September. The UK company will be performing two of Shakespeare’s plays — Macbeth and A Midsummer Night’s Dream. The two plays will play over one week for nine shows only from Sept. 17 to 22.
The productions are brought to the Philippines by Lunchbox Theatrical Productions, which previously brought in shows such as Phantom of the Opera, Wicked, and Mamma Mia.
A Midsummer Night’s Dream is a riot of criss-crossed love and feuding fairies, with clod-hopping amateur actors and a magical potion adding to the confusion and mayhem.
Macbeth is bloody, action-packed and psychologically tense. Populated by witches, ghosts and haunting apparitions, it tells the story of over-reaching ambition, a toxic marriage, a kingdom in crisis, and a man’s encounter with his own darkest self.
Shakespeare’s Rose Theatre rose in the historic city of York, UK, last year, inspired by the famous London Rose Playhouse built in 1587, 12 years prior to The Globe. It recreates the experience of watching theater in an Elizabethan setting. The 21st century version has a 13-sided pop-up Elizabethan-style theater constructed from state-of-the-art scaffolding, corrugated iron and timber, and comprised three tiers of covered seating with an open courtyard for standing “groundlings.”
In its debut season last year, Shakespeare’s Rose Theatre garnered popular and critical acclaim, as well as awards for Best Cultural Experience and Best Attraction. This year it will return for a second season in York, while simultaneously a second theater will make its debut at Blenheim Palace in Oxford, UK.
Now Philippine audiences can enjoy these two productions, which come direct from the summer season at Blenheim Palace, performed by a British cast in their first international season at Theatre at Solaire.
Originator of the project and CEO of Lunchbox Theatrical Productions, James Cundall, said “While Manila audiences will be seated in the comfort of Theatre at Solaire rather than an open-air scaffolding structure, the two productions will be innovative, immersive and fun, with the actors making some of their entrances and exits through the audience. We will have dramatic sword-fights, bubbling cauldrons, wayward fairies, comic love scenes, gruesome murders, grand poetry and no shortage of fake blood! I believe Shakespeare’s Rose Theatre offers something for everyone, and will showcase heritage theatre at its best.”
Artistic Director for Shakespeare’s Rose Theatre and The director of Macbeth will be Damian Cruden, who worked with the company last year, and was Artistic Director at York Theatre Royal for over 20 years. Directing A Midsummer Night’s Dream is Juliet Forster who was the original director for the play and will also be directing other titles in the UK season this summer.
For more information, visit www.shakespearesrosetheatre.com.

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