Laugh out loud Shakespeare (From Croydon Guardian)

Laugh out loud Shakespeare

11:39am Thursday 6th November 2008

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When I was at school news of yet another trip to the theatre to see yet another William Shakespeare play was - more often than not - met with groans and long drawn out sighs.

Listening to complicated words and the long soliloquy’s were not exactly the way many kids wanted to spend the rare outings they got but if Shakespeare 4 Kidz had been around back then things might have been a little different.

“A lot of people think Shakespeare is another word for boring but I’ve seen kids wet themselves with laughter watching our version.”

Julian Chenery

The award-winning British theatre company specialise in turning the Bard’s classic stories into fun-filled musicals that combine all the well-known quotes from the original text with modern language, music, song and dance - making the thou’s and the hast’s a little easier for everyone to understand.

This year it has taken on Romeo and Juliet having already performed A Midsummer Night’s Dream, Macbeth, Hamlet, Twelfth Night and The Tempest, and so enormous has the company’s success been that it is about to jump off the stage and onto the big screen.

“We are now in the film business,” beamed a jubilant Julian Chenery, chief executive, director and co-writer for all productions and the brainchild behind the company.

“Starting with The Tempest we are embarking on a series of six movies to be filmed in Dubai. It’s a very exciting time for me.”

The former share trader turned playwright started the company in 1996 when, with a cast of schoolchildren, it put on The Dream at Woldingham School to an audience of more than 2,000 over three nights.

“My favourite Shakespeare play is The Dream because it’s the first one we did and it’s so funny,” he said.

“A lot of people think Shakespeare is another word for boring but I’ve seen kids wet themselves with laughter watching our version.”

S4K's Romeo & Juliet - The Musical, Fairfield Halls, Park Lane, November 20-21, Thurs 1.30pm and 7.30pm, Fri 10am and 1.30pm, £15 (children £9). Call 020 8688 9291 or visit shakespeare4kidz.com

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