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The Wars of the Roses: Edward IV Tickets

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Director: Trevor Nunn; Associate Director: Cordelia Monsey; Set Design Concept: John Napier
Set Design: Mark Friend; Costume Design: Mark Bouman; Lighting Design: Paul Pyant
Sound Design: Fergus O’Hare; Fight Director: Malcolm Ranson; Music: Guy Woolfenden and Corin Buckeridge; Casting Director: Ginny Schiller CDG

Edward IV

The second play, adapted from Shakespeare’s Henry VI Parts I, II and III, intensifies the conflict between all those grasping for power. The Civil War ebbs and flows as the throne changes hands. A powerless Henry VI becomes a pacifist appalled by the fighting; his beautiful French wife becomes a warrior queen, leading her army into battle. The white rose triumphs, promoting the accession of young Edward IV, but the red rose fights back and Henry VI is king again.

As the white rose counterattacks, nobody quite notices the emergence of an ambitious crookback youngster... called Richard.

 

Shakespeare's Game Of Thrones.

A nation at war with itself. Father against son, husband against wife, brother against brother.

Epic, enthralling, extraordinary. This autumn the Rose stage will be transformed into a battleground for The Wars of the Roses, a gripping distillation of four of Shakespeare’s history plays, directed by Trevor Nunn, one of the world’s leading Shakespearean directors.

A spectacular theatrical event not seen since it was first produced at the Royal Shakespeare Company in 1963 by Peter Hall & John Barton, The War of the Roses is a trilogy of plays about one of the most tumultuous and intriguing periods of British history - the 15th century conflict between the House of York and the House of Lancaster for the throne of England.

Through these plays Shakespeare examines the very essence of human conflict. A tale of feuding families, murderous kings and adulterous queens, scheming and betrayal, revolts and battles, The Wars of the Roses chronicles the final struggle for power in medieval England.

 

 

The other plays in The Wars of the Roses trilogy are Henry VI and Richard III

‘One of the mightiest stage projects of our time, a production to remember all our lives’ Daily Mail on the original ground-breaking RSC product​ion.

 

From 1968 to 1986, Trevor Nunn was the youngest ever Artistic Director of the Royal Shakespeare Company, directing over thirty productions, including most of the Shakespeare canon, as well
as Nicholas Nickleby and Les Miserables. From 1997 to 2003, he was Director of the National Theatre, where his productions included Troilus and Cressida, Oklahoma!, The Merchant of Venice, Summerfolk, My Fair Lady, A Streetcar Named Desire, Anything Goes and Love’s Labour’s Lost. He has directed the world premieres of Tom Stoppard’s plays Arcadia, The Coast of
Utopia and Rock n Roll; and of Cats, Sunset Boulevard, Starlight Express and Aspects of Love by Andrew Lloyd Webber. Other theatre includes Timon of Athens, Skellig (Young Vic); The Lady From The Sea (Almeida); Hamlet, Richard II, Inherit the Wind (Old Vic); A Little Night Music (Menier Chocolate Factor & New York); Cyrano de Bergerac, Kiss Me Kate (Chichester); Heartbreak
House, Flare Path, Rosencrantz and Guildenstern Are Dead, The Tempest (Theatre Royal, Haymarket); Scenes from a Marriage (Coventry & St James); All That Fall (Jermyn Street & New York); A Chorus of Disapproval and Relative Values (West End). Work for television includes Antony and Cleopatra, The Comedy of Errors, Macbeth, Three Sisters, Othello, The Merchant of Venice and King Lear, and on film, Hedda, Lady Jane and Twelfth Night.
In 1960, along with Peter Hall, John Barton co-founded the Royal Shakespeare Company and over the next 40 years directed more than 30 productions either on his own or in collaboration with Peter Hall and Trevor Nunn including Twelfth Night with Judi Dench as Viola and Donald Sinden as Malvolio and A Midsummer Night's Dream with Patrick Stewart as Oberon. In 1982, working with 21 RSC company members, including Judi Dench, Ian McKellen, Patrick Stewart, Ben Kingsley and Jane Lapotaire, John Barton recorded nine workshop sessions for London Weekend Television. The recordings, along with the accompanying book, became Playing Shakespeare; an invaluable guide and tool used by many actors to this day. Throughout his career, he has written and adapted works for theatre, notably: The Hollow Crown (1961), The Wars of The Roses, with Peter Hall (1963), The
Greeks (1980), Morte D’Arthur (1983) and Tantalus (2000). Tantalus, which took over a decade to complete, is a 10-play cycle developed from The Greeks. It deals with the Trojan War in the context of myth and storytelling and includes hitherto unknown material from fragmentary sources. Tantalus received its premier in Denver, Colorado in October 2000 and the UK in 2001. In 2001, he was awarded the Sam Wanamaker Prize for pioneering work in Shakespearean theatre. He continues as an RSC Advisory Director, still gives workshops and masterclasses on Shakespeare to UK and international theatre companies and in 2014 published a revised edition of Tantalus: An Ancient Greek Cycle Retold in Ten Plays.
Peter Hall is an internationally renowned director. He was the Founding Director of the Royal Shakespeare Company (1960-68) where his productions included the acclaimed Wars of the Roses, first seen at Stratford in 1963 and 1964 with subsequent performances in London and on BBC TV in 1965. This trilogy of plays, adapted by John Barton (in collaboration with Peter Hall) from Shakespeare's Henry VI Parts I, II and III and Richard III, was to become one of the most influential stagings in the history of the RSC. Peter Hall was Director of the National Theatre (1973-88) and Artistic Director of Glyndebourne Opera (1984-90). In 1988 he founded The Peter Hall Company working in partnership with leading West End and regional producers on more than 40 productions. In 2003 he was invited to be the Founding Director of Rose Theatre Kingston, becoming Director Emeritus in 2008. His productions at the Rose include Uncle Vanya, the theatre's opening production, and A Midsummer Night's Dream starring Judi Dench. He has received many awards in the UK and Europe for his work in theatre and opera, as well as two Tonys on Broadway. He was knighted in 1977 for services to the British theatre.

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