Merely Theatre are putting the bard back on the boards in a new UK tour, with dates across England, Scotland and Northern Ireland. They want audiences to remember the thrills of ‘in the flesh’ theatre.

London, England -- (SBWIRE) -- 01/13/2016 -- Theatre in the cinema was created to help people who couldn't reach London's biggest theatres, or couldn't afford a ticket, to see their shows. In 2015, Shakespeare productions have been silver-screened as never before thanks to stars like Kenneth Branagh and Benedict Cumberbatch. Unfortunately, Lyn Gardner wrote in May of this year how such screenings could see a decline in touring productions, and by December, her fears began to look increasingly justified. Merely Theatre believe there's no substitute for the live experience. In 2016, they will put quality Shakespeare back onto stages throughout the country, to bring the live experience back to life.

The 2016 UK Tour, supported using public funding by Arts Council England and produced by The Production Exchange, will see the company perform over forty shows across nearly twenty different venues in England, Scotland and Northern Ireland. The five-hand performances of Henry V and A Midsummer Night's Dream, will begin on January 22nd at the Uppingham Theatre and concluding on May 7th at the Kings Theatre, Edinburgh. Full details and booking information is available here.

After years working together in London, this is the company's first national tour, and the challenges facing small theatre companies are greater than ever. Audiences are increasingly risk averse, and must choose between London's biggest institutions on the screen, and emerging companies on local stages. This means Merely's work must stand up against that of the biggest companies in theatre to have a chance. Early five-star reviews together with audience feedback suggest the company will pull it off.

Artistic Director Scott Ellis said of the tour, "This is our first national tour and it's really exciting for us as a company. Many of us have worked together under the Merely banner for years, honing our style. It's great to be able to take this to audiences nationwide. This is the kind of theatre that really has to be seen live: you can't leap through a screen, but you can leap off a stage. The actors have an active relationship with the audience in every scene, getting face to face with them in a lot of cases."

In the cinema, audiences watch another audience watching the show, through many cameras, at the whim of an editor, putting layers between them and the show. In live theatre, the audience's experience is raw and unmediated, and this is what Merely count on.

Associate Producer Emmy Rose explained, "We believe in bringing the show to the audience. The dynamic between the audience and our actors is integral to the way we do things. We hammer in clarity every rehearsal, so while there's this immense energy on stage, it's all focused, and it's all designed to connect with each person watching. It makes the shows so accessible."

The company operates a progressive 50/50 gender-blind company of five men and five women. For their five-hand productions of A Midsummer Night's Dream and Henry V, there is a company of ten: five men and five women, with a male and a female actor ready to play every role. From that cast of ten, five are selected for any one performance, with the gender balance shifting fluidly between shows. For example, some audiences will see a female Henry V, and others will see a male Titania.

Ellis said of the shows, "There's no screen, no cameras, no editor getting between us, dictating the focus. Our shows are sweaty, intense, immediate experiences. The way Shakespeare should be done: live and alive."

About Merely Theatre
The actors, the audience, the text. Merely is characterised by playful use of space and audience interaction. Their dynamic, irreverent but focused use of text ensures modern audiences are as engaged and entertained as when the words were written. For more information please visit: http://merelytheatre.co.uk/

Contact: Emmy Rose, Associate Producer, Merely Theatre
Email: emmy@merelytheatre.co.uk
Phone: +44(0) 7708 822 306

For more information on this press release visit: http://www.releasewire.com/press-releases/release-3.htm

Merely Shakespeare specialize in bringing fresh life and a new dimension to Shakespeare’s immortal words in a new UK tour, promising audiences will get it first time.

London, England -- (SBWIRE) -- 01/13/2016 -- Shakespeare should be seen and not read. Shakespeare wrote his scripts for the stage, and Merely Theatre will take two of his best loved plays, A Midsummer Night's Dream and Henry V, across the country this spring. The company will perform over forty shows in nearly twenty venues throughout England, Scotland and Northern Ireland. What's more, they promise audiences will not only understand the shows, but fall in love with their humour, energy and insight.

Their five-hand productions of Henry V and A Midsummer Night's Dream will tour the country, supported by public funding by Arts Council England and produced by The Production Exchange. The tour begins on January 22nd at the Uppingham Theatre and concludes on May 7th at the Kings Theatre, Edinburgh. Full details and booking information is available here.

The company, which uses a company of ten actors (five male, five female) to put on gender-blind five-hand productions, love to be on the front foot at all times, with high stakes and a booming energy running through their work. But amidst the anarchy, they fight constantly to earn their expressiveness with clarity. It is the foundation stone of their work, and makes them surprising to those who haven't yet developed an ear for Shakespeare.

The effect has already been witness first-hand. One reviewer for Everything Theatre began her review of Merely's Henry V saying, "I detest Shakespeare's histories. I find them tedious, dry and dull," only to conclude by calling their production, "…the most clear and concise Shakespeare production I have ever seen… Poignant and moving, yet shockingly funny at all the right moments… They've got future audiences out there that need to be educated as to what Shakespeare could and should be in this modern generation."

Those audiences now have a chance to see the shows for themselves, making it the perfect time to introduce first-timers and young people to Shakespeare. The company might even change a few minds amongst those who have seen confusing productions in the past.

Audience members in Greenwich took a shine to the shows in previews, saying, "My first play ever and I really enjoyed it! I will definitely be coming back again," and, "it was fantastic! I am not really knowledgeable on Shakespeare, but this showed just how accessible it can be!"

Company actor Robert Myles says the company make it their business to be understood, "In Merely, we take our responsibility to communicate seriously – we mine the text for detail and hammer in as much clarity as possible. By doing so, we can bring the audience with us, sharpening their ear as the play rides along. And that's just the foundation, which we build on with energy, comedy, emotion… It brings the plays to life, and it's why we sweat so much on stage."

Henry V tells the story of young King Henry's famous victory at Agincourt while outnumbered, but underestimated, by the French. A Midsummer Night's Dream playfully depicts the comically intertwining tales of feuding forest gods, midnight elopements and staging a theatre show. The shows are cut to just 90 minutes each.

Theatre Critic Lyn Gardner has written on how it is best to get children into Shakespeare when they are young, "I reckon that no child is too young to get a taste of Shakespeare… Definitely before children have been exposed to the misguided idea that Shakespeare is primarily there to be studied to pass exams rather than to entertain."

Artistic Director Scott Ellis said of the tour, "We're bringing our work nationwide for the first time, after two years in London working together and honing our style. We're a young company, but we love Shakespeare, and we want to share the joy and enthusiasm and energy that comes from that. We're sweaty, we're bold, and we strive for clarity in context, making the shows both understandable and real."

About Merely Theatre
The actors, the audience, the text. Merely is characterised by playful use of space and audience interaction. Their dynamic, irreverent but focused use of text ensures modern audiences are as engaged and entertained as when the words were written. For more information please visit: http://merelytheatre.co.uk/

About The Production Exchange
The Production Exchange is a charity whose objectives are to support early career practitioners in the furthering of their skills and access to resources to develop their craft. For more information please visit: http://www.theproductionexchange.com/

Contact: Emmy Rose, Associate Producer, Merely Theatre
Email: emmy@merelytheatre.co.uk
Phone: +44(0) 7708 822 306

For more information on this press release visit: http://www.releasewire.com/press-releases/release-3.htm

As criticism mounts over opportunities for women in theatre, Merely Theatre use a company of five male and five female actors, producing five-hand Shakespeare productions touring the UK in 2016.

London, England -- (SBWIRE) -- 01/13/2016 -- As 2015 drew to a close, criticisms surfaced over equality of opportunity for women in the arts in the UK. While the industry as a whole flags behind other sectors, the new generation of theatre companies are taking matters into their own hands. Merely Theatre hope to start 2016 as they mean to go on as they embark on their first national tour: as the first gender-blind classical theatre company, and the first to use 50/50 casting.

The 50/50 male and female company will perform over forty shows in nearly twenty venues across England, Scotland and Northern Ireland early in 2016, produced by The Production Exchange and supported using public funding by Arts Council England.

This company will tour five-hand productions of Henry V and A Midsummer Night's Dream, beginning on January 22nd at the Uppingham Theatre and concluding on May 7th at the Kings Theatre, Edinburgh. Full details and booking information is available here.

Associate Producer Emmy Rose explained, "It's fantastic to be preparing our first national tour after working for years together in rep, honing our style. What we've created is modern, accessible and so exciting. We can't wait to connect with audiences across the country."

Shakespeare himself was no role model when it came to equality: only 16% of his characters were female. The largest female role is Rosalind, with just over seven hundred lines, while the largest male role, Hamlet, has over fifteen hundred.

One of the other major criticisms is that even when women are employed equally in number, they fall into 'subordinate' roles; the kind that would fail the Bechdel Test, where two women must speak to one another about a subject other than a man in order to pass.

To overcome these challenges in the text, Merely's unique company is used in a unique way.

Their five-hand productions of Henry V and A Midsummer Night's Dream utilize a company of ten actors, made up of five men and five women. Male-female 'twins' rehearse the same parts as one another, so there is both a male and a female actor ready to play every role. From that cast of ten, five are selected for each performance, with the genders fluidly jumbled. For example, some audiences will see a female Henry V, and others will see a male Titania. This role-sharing also creates an industry-leading progressive working environment for the company moving forward.

This approach has already yielded rewards, with a production of Henry V with four female actors (one of whom played Henry) and one male earning a five-star review from Everything Theatre, together with glowing audience feedback. The company does not draw attention to the gender-blind conceit however.

Artistic Director Scott Ellis explained, "Our system of putting the actors into male-female pairs and the fact that every single character could be portrayed by an actor of either sex on any given night means that we are truly 100% gender blind. This allows us to address the gender inequality in British theatre without making any sort of statement with the production itself. We simply take gender out of the equation."

Robert Myles, an actor working with the company, remarked, "When Shakespeare was around, all actors were men and actors played all the parts. Now actors are men and women, and actors play all the parts. It's got a clean logic to it, and it doesn't affect how we tell the story."

By making it a non-issue in their practice, it frees the creative team up to focus on perfecting what they see as the fundamentals of Shakespeare- clarity, focus, stakes, pace, sweat, and active choices.

Artistic Director Scott Ellis said of the work, "We're not doing this as a gimmick or because it's politically correct. We're doing it because we've worked with as many great female actors as we have with male actors, and they deserve the same kind of opportunities to play the same great roles. This way, they can. It stretches both the men and women in the cast to play parts they wouldn't ordinarily be cast in, making them more creative and robust in the process. The result has been two of the best shows we've ever produced."

About Merely Theatre
The actors, the audience, the text. Merely is characterised by playful use of space and audience interaction. Their dynamic, irreverent but focused use of text ensures modern audiences are as engaged and entertained as when the words were written. For more information please visit: http://merelytheatre.co.uk/

Contact: Emmy Rose, Associate Producer, Merely Theatre
Email: emmy@merelytheatre.co.uk
Phone: +44(0) 7708 822 306

For more information on this press release visit: http://www.releasewire.com/press-releases/release-3.htm