Date: 13/10/2014
Following Custom/Practice’s exceptionally successful tour of A Midsummer Night’s Dream in 2013, Shakespeare's greatest tragedy Romeo and Juliet is set to come alive on the new UK tour, as the story is magically retold by one of the UK’s most highly regarded, up-and-coming, young theatre companies. The show will be appearing at Malvern Theatres from Monday 27th October to Saturday 1st November.
In this brand new production, Custom/Practice interweaves Shakespeare's original language with dynamic street dance, aimed at diverse theatre audiences. Their approach aims to bring the best of classical theatre to new audiences, while continuing to challenge more traditional audiences by renewing their imaginative engagement with a well-known classical text.
By developing a production that seamlessly integrates the best of spoken classical verse with the best contemporary street dance, the work will challenge audiences and artists from both worlds in order to engage with the text and its narrative in new ways. Both dance and spoken elements will be underscored with newly commissioned music.
Performed by a group of highly talented, exciting and culturally diverse actors, this adaptation is a thrilling production. As with all of Custom/Practice’s work, the piece is primarily aimed at entertaining and educating as diverse an audience as possible because the company’s core belief is that anybody, whatever their class, background or education can create, access and enjoy theatre of the highest quality.
The result is a breath taking and magical production of Shakespeare's play which underlines his continued relevance to modern audiences, and is so incredibly accessible it truly encourages new fans of this classical work.
The dance element will be realized by the creative team behind Olivier Award Winning Hip Hop dance company Boy Blue – London-based choreographer Kenrick ‘H2O’ Sandy and composer Michael ‘Mikey J’ Asante. Boy Blue is acclaimed for presenting the perfect marriage of music and dance, releasing boundless creative energy in their performances, laying down the beats and delivering thrilling and raw dance sequences. The company is proud to be home to some of the UK’s most sought-after hip-hop artists.
Rae McKen, (RSC, Young Vic, Birmingham Rep), founder of Custom/Practice says “The work makes a powerful case for truly universal access to the classics. By re-imagining a story that is seen as ‘core’ to our heritage through a cast, creative team and theatrical language that each enthusiastically embraces the cultural diversity of our country, the work, we hope, demonstrates to both new and established audiences that such diversity, over and above any social agenda, can quite simply enrich and enhance the artistic experience for everyone, whatever their background”.
Custom/Practice, a London theatre company founded in November 2010, is committed to creating arresting productions of new and classical work, alongside an integrated programme of professional development and high-level educational outreach that reflects the best practice and cultural diversity of 21st Century Britain.