There's Much Ado As Shit-faced Shakespeare Returns

The cast of Shit-faced Shakespeare. Photo: Rah Petherbridge

Celebrating their 7th Anniversary this year, Shit-Faced Shakespeare is back in London's West End still three sheets to the wind with their new challenge - a season of Much Ado About Nothing as you've never seen it before. Their aim, to take one of Shakespeare's greatest plays, add one hammered actor whilst trying to reach the curtain call without a calamity, an injury or a lawsuit.

Last year Shit-faced Shakespeare performed to over 30,000 people in the UK and over 35,000 in the USA. Much Ado About Nothing will be their longest run to date in the UK. Filled with mistaken identities, petty arguments and put-downs, and the course of love not running smoothly (not least of all because friends keep interfering). Sounds like a Friday night in any British boozer. But what if Hero decides she really would rather marry the chap in the second row, or if Benedick can’t stand up?

So how does Shit-faced Shakespeare work I hear you ask? Well each performance has a cast of 7 actors, who all arrive 4 hours before the start of the show for a ‘party’ – however this party is dry for all but one performer, who gets Shit-faced. The rest is a balancing act between the (trimmed down to an hour) Shakespeare script and improv rules, which state you must go with WHATEVER the drunk actor decides to do. “Yes, and...” rather than “No, but...”. Every single show is a one-off. Every single performance has a different drunk actor. Every single time they are genuinely inebriated.

Presented by Magnificent Bastards, Shit-faced Shakespeare will run at Leicester Square Theatre from 11 April to 16 September 2017 and is suitable for ages 16+.

BOOK TICKETS FOR SHIT-FACED SHAKESPEARE