Fabulous five star reception for The Tempest at Stafford Castle

Following a storming opening weekend, Stafford Festival Shakespeare producers are celebrating the incredible critical reception of this year’s production of The Tempest at Stafford Castle.

Here’s what critics had to say:

★★★★★ “A triumph” Birmingham Mail

★★★★★ “Outstanding, magical production” The Stage

★★★★★ “It gives the RSC’s production a run for its money, that’s for sure” Break A Leg

★★★★“Stafford Shakespeare Festival has taken a centuries’ old production, given it a contemporary twist, and brought it to life for a whole new audience” Staffordshire Living

“Spellbinding open-air spectacle” Stoke Sentinel

“Something for everyone” Staffordshire Newsletter

“Prenton’s insightful direction and Frances Collier’s delightfully atmospheric set ensure it takes audiences on a memorable journey” British Theatre Guide

The Tempest has also received a ‘Best Regional Stage Production’ nomination for the Break A Leg Awards 2017, with Stephen Beckett (Prospero), James Lawrence (Sebastian), Richard Gibson (Gonzalo), and Zephryn Taitte (Caliban) nominated for ‘Best Actor on Stage’, and Katrina Kleve (Francesca) and Grace Carter (Miranda) cited for ‘Best Actress on Stage’.

The Tempest will run until Saturday 8th July 2017 at Stafford Castle. Full ticket information and this year’s catering options can be obtained from the box office on 01785 619080 or by visiting www.staffordfestivalshakespeare.com

Magicians Morgan & West chat to us about their involvement in Stafford Festival Shakespeare 2017

The opening of Stafford Festival Shakespeare is just over a week away and this year audiences can expect a true feast of magic and wonder for the production of The Tempest at Stafford Castle, thanks in no small part to the contribution of magicians and the production’s Illusion Consultants, Morgan & West.

Acknowledged as Shakespeare’s final solo play, The Tempest is widely celebrated as one of The Bard’s most enchanting works. It follows the story of Prospero, the exiled Duke of Milan, who becomes stranded on a largely uninhabited island where music, magic and supernatural creatures provide a strange education for him and his young daughter, Miranda.

To help accentuate the magical themes of the play, magicians Rhys Morgan and Robert West will be consulting on the tricks of their trade during rehearsals in order to support the wider vision of the Creative Team, led by Director Clare Prenton, for the production at Stafford Castle. 

During a break from rehearsals, the pair caught up with Stafford Gatehouse Theatre’s Marketing Office, Tom Waldron, to chat about their involvement in this year’s show:


TW – “How does it feel to be back in Stafford and working on this year’s Stafford Festival Shakespeare production of The Tempest?”

RW – “I’m very excited. We don’t often get chance to be part of proper theatre. We do quite a bit of horror consultancy because that’s quite special effects heavy. We used to work a lot with a company called, ‘Theatre of the Damned’ for a few years. It’s all gore and shock elements, rather than magical flourishes.”

RM – “It’s also nice to be somewhere we’re quite familiar with because we’ve performed here [in Stafford] a couple of times, so that’s very nice, as well.”


TW – “How familiar are you with Shakespeare’s plays and has it influenced your own work?”

RW – [LAUGHS] “We’re not that familiar with Shakespeare’s works, in all honesty. Obviously I’ve seen many productions of his plays.”

RM – “We used the ‘Complete Works of Shakespeare’ in a kid’s show… we stand on it! [LAUGHS] So this is exciting for us to be proper Shakespeare people.

TW – “This year’s Stafford Festival Shakespeare production is set in the 1930s, did this have any bearing on your involvement as ‘Illusion Consultants’ given the Victorian/Edwardian theme of your own act?

RW – “We think of [our act] as a BBC costume drama version of Victoriana than the brutal, gritty reality of the Victorian period.”

RM – "I think it did have a bearing on our involvement, not so much our act, but more the magic because the 1920s and 30s was a time of a lot of magic in theatres – the end of Vaudeville and before TV.”

RW – “The 20s and 30s was also a time when magic publishing became popular. There are loads of texts, books and tricks that were invented during that time that you can still find.”

RM – “Yes, [magic] was starting to move away from being a very insular, secretive hobby to being one that lots of people had access to.”

RW – “And there were lots of old fashioned tricks [popular at that time] that nobody does anymore because it involved things like, having a cane or a pair of white gloves, that fit really nicely with this setting [for the play this year].”

RM – "In particular, there was a magician who originated from Swansea whose act was called Cardini, who travelled the world… and his act was that of a gentleman returning from a night at the theatre in the 20s and 30s, dressed in the aforementioned top hat and white gloves, and that is another interesting influence we will be drawing on for this production.”



TW – “Without revealing too much, what sort of magical goings on can we expect to see in this year’s show?”

RM – “It’s an interesting one because it’s a mix of conjuring and actual magic.”

RW – “Because the character of Prospero has genuine magical powers, including spirits and that kind of stuff, so it’s working with that element. But also, the character Prospero as ‘The Duke of Milan’, is meant to be a fan of “The Liberal Arts” (as it says in the text), and this production is casting him as a fan of magic, which a lot of rich blokes of the 20s and 30s were. So it gives us scope to do fun tricks as well as looking at the darker magic arts, so to speak!"



The Tempest will open on Thursday 22nd June and run until Saturday 8th July 2017 at Stafford Castle. Tickets start at £13.50 and can be purchased from the box office on 01785 619080 or by visiting the www.staffordfestivalshakespeare.com

A week in the life on an actor at Stafford Festival Shakespeare

In the first of a series of blog entries on the goings on back-stage at Stafford Festival Shakespeare, Richard Gibson - renowned for his turn as Her Flick in the popular BBC Sitcom 'Alo 'Alo - discusses his impressions during week one of rehearsals ahead of playing Gonzalo in The Tempest this year at Stafford Castle...


Driving on a Sunday afternoon to a town you have never been to before, to spend an intensive few weeks with a whole tribe of people you have never met before, some of whom you may soon be required to kiss and declare undying love for, and others whom you may even be required to kill. All in the line of duty, of course, and all familiar territory in the life of an actor working in the theatre.

Last week, a collection of people arrived in Stafford to begin work on this year's production for the annual Stafford Festival Shakespeare, which with each year grows in scale and stature, and, as Europe's largest-scale outdoor Shakespeare Festival, is becoming a coveted booking for those lucky enough to be chosen.

But first, after navigating the ring roads and byways of a new town, to find one's digs, there is the unpacking and preparation for the next day's read-through.

On our arrival at the Gatehouse Theatre, a vast ring of chairs was set out on the stage, ready to seat contributors from every area of the production - from front-of-house, to management, technical staff, publicity people, safety officers and, of course, the actors. None but the most shameless and courageous – or, possibly, sickeningly well-prepared - enjoys showing what they are made of in front of complete strangers, even in the most lightly written murder mystery, but to launch in to the finely crafted language of the Bard, is to become the bared. Daunting indeed.

This season, following the introductions, safety briefings and warnings about cast members eating their own food in the theatre café, we are treated to a preamble by our director, Claire Prenton, whose vision of the play takes us to the east coast of Africa, aboard – but not for long – a luxury Italian cruise ship in the 1930s.

Shakespeare's plays contain resonances for the whole world, and at different times in history, may have particular resonances for the people watching them, and there is therefore an almost infinite range of possibilities for how they can be presented. Strict adherents to the idea that Shakespeare's plays lose some authenticity when set outside the period overlook the fact that the writer's respect for  details of geography could be described as fluid, and his concern for historical detail as relaxed. In fact, in his time, plays with a historical setting were played in the modern dress of the time, so it seems unlikely that he would have felt that liberties were being taken when exploring resonances in different times and places.

It would be more than my life is worth to give any detail about Production Designer Frances Collier's set and the designs at this stage, but all will soon be revealed, and I can offer a firm promise that they are nothing short of spectacular, and that audiences will not have seen anything quite like them for sheer scale and imagination.

Having heard about the period, it was some relief to me to think that there would be no beards in this one. Quite wrong. As it turns out, among the Italian gentry of the 1930s, facial hair was very much a feature, and instructions were issued that shaving, among the men especially, would cease forthwith. So after presenting themselves on day one as fresh-faced, wholesome professionals, by Wednesday the men of the cast were beginning to take on the appearance of having slept under a hedge – and of course, there may have been some who had done just that. By Friday, many of them blend in nicely in a homelessness shelter. Who knows what week two of rehearsals has in store...


The Tempest will open on Thursday 22nd June and run until Saturday 8th July 2017 at Stafford Castle. Tickets start from £13.50. Full information, including this year’s catering options, can be obtained from the box office on 01785 619080 or by visiting www.staffordfestivalshakespeare.com