Chicago Shakespeare Festival

March 30 – April 13, 2014

Adaptor/Director: Emma Rice

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Lauded all around the world for its trademark vitality, the artistic collective from Cornwall, England, Kneehigh makes its long-awaited Chicago debut with the iconic work that first catapulted the company to international fame. Marrying gorgeous music and ingenious staging with cheeky humor and Wagnerian intensity, Kneehigh now reimagines one of the world’s oldest love stories. Cornish King Mark is at war; he rules with his head, not his heart. But he hasn’t counted on falling head over heels for his enemy’s sister, or expected the arrival of the enigmatic Tristan.

The Shakespeare Theater Company

Sidney Harman Hall

Henry IV, Part 1

Directed by Michael Kahn

March 25 – June 7, 2014

“The better part of valor is, discretion.”

A young prince must decide between tavern roughhousing and the burden of his father’s legacy, in the coming-of-age story of heroism, corruption and war. STC Artistic Director Michael Kahn directs the masterful Stacy Keach (King Lear, Macbeth) who plays Shakespeare’s beloved character, Falstaff.

Chicago Shakespeare Festival

April 29 – June 15, 2014

Director: Christopher Luscombe

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“Once more unto the breach, dear friends, once more!” In a rousing finale to the 2014 season, Shakespeare’s powerful history play takes center stage in our magnificent Courtyard Theater for the very first time. Acclaimed British director Christopher Luscombe, whose work has been featured at the Royal Shakespeare Company, sheds new light on the Bard’s legendary coming-of-age story. Against all odds, a charismatic young monarch confronted by the ferocity of war proves his worth as a man—and king. Henry V is Shakespeare’s rallying cry, celebrating the power of language to summon battlefields from thin air and ignite our souls to action.

THE KILLER – Theater For A New Audience, Brooklyn, NC
By Eugène Ionesco
Newly Translated: Michael Feingold
Direction: Darko Tresnjak
Featuring Michael Shannon

May 17-June 29, 2014

A searing and darkly funny parable about violence and resistance, Ionesco’s The Killer premiered in Paris in 1959 and has become a modern classic of the Theatre of the Absurd. Berenger, Ionesco’s cheerful, well-meaning everyman, discovers a “radiant city” near his dismal urban home, a perpetually sunny, impeccably clean place full of marvelous architecture and delicious food. The one hitch: a serial murderer has been brazenly killing people there for so long that the authorities have given up trying to catch him.

Oscar nominee (Revolutionary Road) Michael Shannon plays Berenger. Our production will bring out the humor and taut film noir aura of this work, underscoring the cinematic allure of the murders, the futile chase, the bungled investigation and the climactic confrontation with the criminal. The exquisitely simple approach will spotlight powerful, precise acting and spare, sculptural design.

Hudson Valley Shakespeare

June 10 – August 31, 2014

Directed by Christoper V. Edwards Othello

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Newly married to Desdemona, is appointed leader of a major military operation. Iago, passed over for promotion by Othello in favor of the younger Cassio, persuades Othello that Cassio and Desdemona are having an affair, with devastating consequences.

Hudson Valley Shakespeare

June 10 – August 31, 2014

Directed by Eric Tucker

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Shakespeare’s gleeful, yet provocative, examination of friendship and young  love features jealous lovers, a cross-dressing heroine, a hysterical clown–and the best role for a dog ever!