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Shakespeare Double Opens New Season at The Nuffield

Two of Shakespeare’s greatest tragedies mark the start of the new season at The Nuffield Theatre, Southampton.

Following the success of That Bahamian Ting, The Nuffield Theatre is collaborating once again with Yellowtale Theatre, to bring a radical reworking of Shakespeare’s Othello, set in the Bahamas, to The Nuffield Studio from 14 – 17 September.

When the strong-willed Desdemona – played by Belinda Owusu, Eastenders’ Libby Fox -marries against her father’s wishes, her world is turned upside down. Her new husband is powerful, rugged, romantic…and white, a Conchy Joe.

Bahamian blood runs high in this feisty reworking of Shakespeare’s classic. In a world of opposites, black is white, freedom is imprisonment and love, through the distorting prism of jealousy, remains as unpredictable as the ocean.

Winchester based company Platform 4, well known for creating stunningly imaginative visual theatre, bring a stylish and accessible retelling of Macbeth to the Main House from 20 - 22 September.

In a land almost afraid to know itself, in a country where unnatural deeds are commonplace, and where the night is filled with a restless ecstasy, Shakespeare’s tragedy of ambition and guilt unfolds. Characters appear and disappear from the shadows as part of a nightmarish vision, played out under an immense canopy of darkness in this taut psychodrama that crackles with wild electricity.

Other highlights from the Nuffield’s Autumn season include:-

Those Magnificent Men (14 – 17 Sep. Thrill to the sheer adventuring spirit of two plucky British pioneers, marvel at their daredevil aerial antics and wonder at how the whole bally thing is told with just two actors and a crateful of funny props!

Out of Joint’s Bang Bang Bang (27 Sep – 1 Oct). Legendary director Max Stafford-Clark directs this gripping new play from Stella Feehily, which comes to The Nuffield following a four week run at London’s Royal Court Theatre.

Shared Experience return with Speechless (4 – 8 Oct), a new play inspired by the best-selling book The Silent Twins by Marjorie Wallace. Winner of a Fringe First Award 2010, this is an astonishing and moving portrayal of the secret world of a very special but ultimately destructive alliance between two sisters.

October also sees a dynamic new version of the most famous highwayman of them all in Dick Turpin’s Last Ride (11 – 15 Oct). This enthralling real life adventure story from the eighteenth century moves at a rip-roaring pace. Dashing horseman, daring robber and swashbuckling swordsman? Or poacher, rapist, thief and murderer? What do you want to believe?

Southampton playwright Maggie Nevill returns with the premiere of her timely new play Alchemy in the UK (20 – 29 Oct). Described by The Telegraph as “a writer positively brimming with talent” Maggie writes with honesty, sassy humour and heartfelt tenderness, about being in and out of work in Britain today.

Volcano - one of the UK’s most radical theatre companies - make their first visit to Southampton with A Clockwork Orange (11 – 12 Nov). Celebrating the 50th anniversary of the best-known work from one of Britain's most prodigious writers, Volcano sidesteps the cult movie and recaptures the shock of the original novella.

Finally, The Borrowers (24 Nov – 8 Jan). With music, jokes and fieldmice, this magical tale comes from the author of Bedknobs and Broomsticks, and from the team behind last year’s A Christmas Carol and 2009’s The Wind in the Willows - one of The Independent’s Top 5 Christmas Shows!

The full programme is available on the Nuffield Theatre’s website http://www.nuffieldtheatre.co.uk .

- by Simon Cole

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	Nuffield Theatre,Southampton