Before Nell/After Agincourt

Before Nell is told through the eyes of a boy actor preparing to take the stage as Nell Quickly AKA Madame Pistol in the first ever production of Shakespeare’s play, Henry V. It presents a heart-breaking, darkly comic and meticulously researched insight into the hardships and social dynamics of the time whilst drawing some alarming comparisons with life today. After Agincourt is a visceral and brutal recounting of the English invasion of France in 1415. Set in The Boar’s Head Tavern seven years later, a drunk and bitter Pistol details the campaign of bloody battles in vivid modern vernacular at the same time tearing down the heroic picture of King Henry V we’re so familiar with.The Crooked Billets Theatre Company presents an exciting double bill of one-person plays. Written in the 1980s, these neglected pieces cleverly use Shakespeare’s Henry V as a framework to explore themes of coming of age, grief, war, conscription and PTSD.