Underpinning all our work is our love of the
work of William Shakespeare.
Much of our work comes out of what we have learned through studying his
plays and then putting them into alternative contexts and new writing;
this results in a startling rejuvenation of his words,
characters, and themes, and therefore helps us to
better understand ourselves in today's world.
This work has continued to inform our own original works,
and it has been exciting to watch this process
of growth continue down the centuries.
It’s not been easy trying to get inside the mind of this most
incredible genius of words, yet the journey we started over
18 years ago has been exhilarating, to say the least.
Whilst there are many companies throughout the world
regularly presenting Shakespeare’s plays in unique ways,
the approach we have taken revolves around providing
answers to this contention:
Taking as a given truth Richard Eyre’s statement that
Shakespeare gave us the DNA of our Theatre,
how then can it best be passed
down the line to:
a) give new and sustainable life to his own work.
b) create fresh work inspired, influenced by, or
flows out from the tradition Shakespeare worked in.
c) help us better understand the issues and opportunities
that we have to engage within today's world.
This is what we set out to do, and since then we have written
and performed 5 sequels to Shakespeare's original plays and
6 plays that take us into the creativity of Shakespeare.
We believe our approach of staying faithful to the original works,
whilst putting them in a very different setting,
results in a startling rejuvenation of the text,
giving them a whole new life and meaning;
reaction from audience members and
the press give evidence to this.
For a selection of Reviews and Audience Feedback quotes from
all our AlternativeShakespeare productions please click here.
AlternativeTheatre . . . is about presenting Theatre, in a way that touches people. It's also about actors and
audience, together discovering what makes us tick, and hopefully feel good:
"Good Theatre, we believe, can only be delivered if we first listen, and listen very hard at that,
to the beat that is inherent in the writing; for it is this pulse that drives the rest of the work
- acting, direction, design, music, scenery, in fact, everything we do. It is the energy
that flows from this that the audience should feel, for touching the
hearts and minds of the audience is what it's all about."
All our work to date starts with Theatre plays, and so
Theatre is very much the engine room for us.
For more details, please click here.
Our Vision Statement
The Alternative Shakespeare Collaboration exists to help people enrich their own lives, specifically through the self-understanding generated out of our alternative Theatre ¦ Shakespeare work.
WELCOME!
About Us
The AlternativeTheatre Company, formerly known as Heart Productions and
then inamoment, was set up in 2003. Professionally produced,
our Theatre has been seen, in Birmingham,
London, Edinburgh, Manchester, Bath,
Oldham, Bristol, and Buxton.
In that time we have won a number of awards,
including Best New Writing, Best
Play, Best Adaptation etc.
In 2021 we becaome part of The Alternative Space (TAS) will launch
our podcast series, as well as publishing our work in the
form of books, audiobooks, audio plays,
videos, downloads, blogs, etc.
To check out The Alternative Space website please click here.
This is our most recent venture and one that will be
taking pole position over the coming years.
Our intention is to work our way through the back catalogue of our
playscripts, as well as creating new playbooks along the way.
For details of all our books, please click here.