Two women and two men sitting on a wooden table with arts and crafts, with an abstract background culminating in colours of purple, blue and green

Table Top Shakespeare Selected Works from Shakespeare by Forced Entertainment (United Kingdom)

  • Theatre
  • Performance
  • Studio
  • Run time: 140 minutes, including 20 minute interval Subject to change

All the world's a stage, and all the men and women merely pantry items…  

For the first time in Sydney, Table Top Shakespeare brings the Bard’s masterworks to life in a celebration of his legendary legacy.  

Six performers from acclaimed UK theatre company Forced Entertainment retell the iconic tales with relish, marmalade, dish soap and other bits and bobs. A vase plays the prince. A jar plays Juliet. A Dettol bottle is her nurse. Salt and pepper shakers rule the kingdom.  

Across one week only, watch the performers transform a different Shakespeare play each night. With a pinch of Elizabethan poetry and a generous serving of playfulness, they’ll strip back timeless comedies, tragedies and histories to their bare basics, with zero shortage of drama, romance and clever twists.  

It’s the Shakespeare you know and love, surprisingly reimagined and served with plenty of wit. This special season is presented as a double bill, with two performances each evening across the final weekend.  

As King Lear says, ‘nothing will come of nothing’, so book your seat today.  

Double bills including a 20-minute interval between shows are:

  • Measure for Measure / The Taming of the Shrew
  • The Merchant of Venice / A Midsummer Night’s Dream
  • The Comedy of Errors / Othello
  • Timon of Athens / Romeo and Juliet
  • Richard III / Much Ado About Nothing
  • Pericles / King Lear
  • Macbeth / The Two Gentlemen of Verona
  • The Winter’s Tale / As You Like It
  • Hamlet / The Tempest

About Forced Entertainment  

“Confounding conventions and exploding audience expectations” - The Times 

Multi-award-winning and globally renowned, Forced Entertainment’s ensemble has challenged traditional theatrical rules for over 30 years, playfully reimagining popular dramatic works to explore modern life, belonging and possibility for everyone.  

Co-produced by Berliner Festspiele – Foreign Affairs Festival, Berlin and Theaterfestival – Basel.

There are also performances of Table Top Shakespeare for schools.

Sydney Opera House presents a Forced Entertainment production

Event details

Britain’s most brilliant experimental theatre company.

The Guardian

About the company

Forced Entertainment is an ensemble of artists founded in 1984. Touring and presenting their ground-breaking provocative performances across the UK, mainland Europe, North America, Japan, Australia and further afield, the group have sustained a unique collaborative practice for more than forty years.

Led by the artist and writer Tim Etchells, the Forced Entertainment company includes designer and performer Richard Lowdon alongside performers Robin Arthur, Claire Marshall, Cathy Naden and Terry O’Connor. Over the years this core ensemble has been augmented by contributions from many guest artists and performers.

Forced Entertainment’s work explores and often explodes the conventions of genre, narrative and theatre itself drawing influence not just from drama but from dance, performance art, music culture and popular forms such as cabaret and stand-up. The group operate at different scales, shifting from intimate two-performer works focused on text, to spectacular productions with large numbers of people onstage.

Cast and creatives

Conceived and devised by 
Forced Entertainment

Performers 
Robin Arthur, Jerry Killick, Richard Lowdon, Claire Marshall, Cathy Naden and Terry O’Connor

Director 
Tim Etchells 

Text 
Robin Arthur, Tim Etchells, Jerry Killick, Richard Lowdon, Claire Marshall, Cathy Naden and Terry O’Connor

Design 
Richard Lowdon

Sound & Lighting Design 
Jim Harrison

Production 
Jim Harrison

Producer 
Eileen Evans

Photography
Hugo Glendinning

Complete Works is a Forced Entertainment production. Co-produced by Berliner Festspiele – Foreign Affairs Festival, Berlin and Theaterfestival– Basel.

Forced Entertainment Creative Team Robin Arthur, Tim Etchells (Artistic Director), Richard Lowdon (Designer), Claire Marshall, Cathy Naden and Terry O’Connor.

Forced Entertainment Management Team Deborah Chadbourn & Eileen Evans (Co-Executive Directors), Jim Harrison (Touring Producer & Production Manager), Jessica Matthews (Participation Producer).

Attending this event

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Plan your visit

Address

Sydney Opera House
Bennelong Point
Sydney NSW 2000
Australia

Getting to the venue

The Opera House is a 7-10 minute walk from Circular Quay, and is easily accessible by car, train, ferry, lightrail, bus, bike and on foot.

Location and access

Studio

The Studio is located in the north-western corner of Sydney Opera House, best accessed through the Western Foyers.

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