Be not afeard, the isle is full of noises…

Continuing its mission to bring Shakespeare to autistic audiences and their families, Flute Theatre presents a new series of online interactive performances of A Midsummer Night's Dream from 12 October to 12 December 2020.

During lockdown, the theatre company created a version of Shakespeare's Pericles in response to autistic individuals experiencing increasing isolation due to the coronavirus pandemic. Flute Theatre reaches these individuals by creating performances via Zoom for individual households, which all family members are invited to watch.

The performance of A Midsummer Night's Dream is experienced through musical sensory games, each of which creates a different dream, shared between actors and autistic participants. Through these dream games, Flute Theatre shares the eyes of Titania, the ears of Bottom, the hand of Puck and the hearts of the lovers. Participants are invited to play any of these games with the company for as long as they like.

Artistic director of Flute Theatre Kelly Hunter MBE said, ‘Now with Covid-19 continuing to restrict the physical proximity between actor and autistic participant, these sensory games take on a deeper resonance as I continue to adapt my work from real space to virtual. Our production, with our interactive games of dream worlds and awakenings, will offer families who are marginalised and locked away a place to combat isolation, express their deeper feelings and shine their inner lights more brightly than before.’

The parent of eight-year-old, non-verbal Lumen said, ‘He has been given tools not offered anywhere else. He has been given a sense of security and familiarity, which for an autistic child are not always easy to come by. He said “Hello” for the fi rst time after listening to Heartbeat Hellos for weeks; he was captivated for the entire hour of Pericles online; he smiled, laughed and even emulated facial expressions of actors; and he has sung some of the songs he has heard from Flute's Soundcloud as a way to self-regulate or to express joy.’

As well as these tailored performances, Flute Theatre has adapted its specialised games to be accessed and experienced online, in order to allow for continued participation throughout the crisis.

Families can book, with no age limits for participants, while schools can take part with up to three autistic individuals. Tickets are £10 per performance, or free if a family is struggling due to the pandemic. Visit www.flutetheatre.co.uk/contact

Of dusty and old titles…

© DR JOHN STONE

Bardwatching loves to report on the discovery of lost historic copies of the Bard's work, but you'd be forgiven for thinking that the discovery of a rare edition of The Two Noble Kinsmen at the RSC, of all places, wouldn't be all that surprising. In fact, however, this isn't that RSC. The rare edition of Shakespeare's last play has been unearthed in a Scottish Catholic college in Spain – the Royal Scots College (RSC). Ahhh…

It is thought that the 1634-printed text of the play co-written with John Fletcher could be the oldest Shakespearean work in the country: it remained hidden for so long because it was categorised in the library's ‘Philosophy’ section. It's thought likely that the tome containing the work – a collection of plays which is still in its original binding – arrived as part of a student's personal library or, according to Dr John Stone who found the book, ‘at the request of the rector of the Royal Scots College, Hugh Semple, who was friends with the Spanish playwright Lope de Vega and had more plays in his personal library.’

In the 17th and 18th Centuries, collections of books in English were rare in Spain because of ecclesiastical censorship, but the Scots college had special authorisation to import whatever they wanted.

The college is rightly proud of its old-new-find, a little-performed Shakespeare play based on Chaucer's Knight's Tale and co-authored with Fletcher, who was one of the Bard's fellow King's men.