H????SES

H????SES
A rebellious new immersive adaptation of Shakespeare???s R + J.

written and directed by Whit Hertford
design by Thomas George

cast: McKenzie Steele-Foster, Haeleigh Royall
Andy Rindlisbach, Olivia Custodio, Lane Richins,
Ali Kinkade, Daniel McLeod, Bethany Rose Sifford and PJ Volk.

Two sides. To every story.
Divided by cultural lines.
In the heat of Verona???s streets, at the epicenter of a bitter ideologic feud, two young girls risk everything to be together.

The world's greatest love story told as never before.
A reimagining of the star-crossed and tragic fates.

What is forbidden love? At the core of all of us is to be loved, but the definition, shape and preference of what that is certainly not the same as it was in 1597. In conservative landscapes across America, individuals are ostracized, victimized and attacked for simply falling in love.

Conservatism v. Liberalism. These are our current families at war. Lines drawn in the sand, keeping us from reaching destinations and reconciling our differences. Love is hard, complex. Sometimes it doesn???t end the way we want. We endlessly chase those first moments. Magical, intoxicating, requiring a breaking from what is acceptable. The young passion must revolt against the old hate. This is R + J.

The Riot Act team follow-up the success of 2017???s Chekhovian adaptation, Poor Bastard with a modern adaptation of this Shakespearean classic.

Embracing a full departure from all archaic production history and expectation, Hertford has written a radically modern, LGBTQA-centric version. A new play inspired by the genius of the Elizabethan writer which investigates what has been behind the velvet rope: a kinetic beating heart of sex, drugs and violence. This production scrapes away the layers of restoration paint that have kept the story locked behind museum glass.

H ?? ?? S E S
Kilby Court | June 13th, 15th, 20th, 23rd, 26th, 29th + July 2nd | 8pm
for more info visit riotacttheatre.co.u
About the director
Co-founder and artistic director of Riot Act, Hertford recently served as Associate Director at Theatre N16 in South London. He received his MFA in theatre directing from East 15 at The University of Essex and studied in Moscow at the the Russian Academy of Theatre Arts (GITIS). Member of the Young Vic Directors Programme and invitee of Toneelgroep Amsterdam.
He quickly established himself in the London fringe scene for adapting and directing resuscitations / redefinitions of classic plays. Known for a style and approach based in European avant garde realism.
Recent directing credits include his radical adaptations of Chekhov???s The Seagull and Ivanov, retitled, The Misbegotten Hope of the Dirty Bird (or A Meditation on the Proper Use of Firearms in Dramatic Literature)* and Poor Bastard (A Triumphant Guide to Midlife Crisis). Additionally, he directed Henrik Ibsen???s The League of Youth (in only its third UK production since publication in 1870) and a London fringe sellout run of Coverage, a newsroom retelling of Julius Caesar. Other directing credits include the debuts of his original plays: D??ttir, Lunatic, Anatomy of Arithmetic, Bloke and Hero & Leander. He also directed at the Arcola Theatre, Southwark Playhouse (UK) and served as an Associate Director at The Courtyard Theatre, in Hoxton East London.
His other original plays include: The Heimrich Maneuver, Endangered Species, The Space Program, Stockholm Syndrome, as well as Hateful Deeds - a restructuring of Richard III, and his third Chekhov adaptation: a new version of The Cherry Orchard titled Spoilt Fruits (Dispatches from the Intersection of Class, Real Estate and Dead Children). He holds a BFA from the ATP conservatory at The University of Utah (US).

About RIOT ACT
Est. in London in 2015. Unapologetic in it???s pursuit to breathe oxygen into the theatre landscape and at the razor-point forefront to provide immediate theatre that explodes, echoes. A belief in both the resuscitation of classic texts through incision / excavation, and in the incitement of new writing by engaging in innovation that bleeds.
A conduit for necessary truth and creation of new electric forms - born out of an aggressive smashing of the gallery glass which has long kept truths out of reach. Stories that are TRANSPARENT, FLAWED, RELENTLESS.

?????? Riot Act stands as an example of London Fringe theatre at its absolute very best......gifted polymath writer-director, Hertford is a hugely intelligent and imaginative theatre-maker.??? - British Theatre.com