Shakespeare has been performed in many different ways since the Bard first penned some of the greatest works in the English language. But in the hands of Sh!t-faced Shakespeare, these works are turned on their head with one of the actors genuinely performing while drunk each night. Cast of Sh!tfaced Shakespeare’s A Midsummer Night’s Dream The show, which began life touring music festivals some 14 years ago, has become a massive hit with a regular residency in London’s West End.
Next week it comes to Blackburn’s Empire Theatre for the first time - the only North West show on a 32-date UK tour. The company will be performing A Midsummer Night’s Dream, which as anyone who has seen it before is already one of the more surreal Shakespeare plays. Throw in a drunk cast member and who know what might happen.
“I think there is some scepticism about what we do,” said Stacey Norris, the show’s director who is also one of the performers. “But that’s something we love to play with. It’s like if you watch a magic trick you want to know how it’s done.
But we are not a magic trick; we are real actors performing Shakespeare’s A Midsummer Night’s Dream. It’s just that one of us is drunk. “The drinking acts as a vehicle for chaos.
We could do an improvised show where one of the cast pretends to be drunk or where we throw the original script out of the window but that wouldn’t work. “The drunk actor on the night can do just what they want. They have carte blan.