Our Vision Statement

AlternativeTheatre exists to help people enrich their own lives

through the self-understanding coming out of our

Alternative Theatre ¦ Being ¦ Shakespeare work.

WELCOME!

in a moment, Frank Bramwell
About Us

Shakespeare ¦ Theatre ¦ Being

AlternativeTheatre, as inamoment theatre, started up in 2003. Professionally produced,

to date our Theatre has been seen in Birmingham, London,

Edinburgh, Manchester, Bath, Oldham, Bristol, and Buxton.

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In that time we have won a number of awards,

including Best New Writing, Best

Play, Best Adaptation etc.

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In 2021 we became part of The AlternativeSpace. TAS will launch

our podcast series, as well as publishing our work in the

form of books, audiobooks, audio plays,

videos, downloads, blogs, etc.

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To check out The AlternativeSpace website please click here.

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Underpinning all our work is our love of the

work of William Shakespeare.

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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.

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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.

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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. 

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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:

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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:

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a) give new and sustainable life to his own work.

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b) create fresh work inspired, influenced by, or

flows out from the tradition Shakespeare worked in. 

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c) help us better understand the issues and opportunities

that we have to engage with in today's world.

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This is what we set out to do, and since then we have written

and performed 6 sequels to Shakespeare's original plays and

6 plays that take us into the creativity of Shakespeare.

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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.

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For a selection of Reviews and Audience Feedback quotes from

all our AlternativeShakespeare productions please click here.

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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:

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"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."

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All our work to date starts with Theatre plays, and so

Theatre is very much the engine room for us.

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For more details, please click here.

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This is our most recent venture and one that will be

taking pole position over the coming years.

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Our intention is to work our way through the back catalogue of our

playscripts, as well as creating new playbooks along the way.

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For details of all our books, please click here.

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