At the festival, there will be our first performance on the castle stage. We requested László Bocsárdi from Sepsiszentgyörgy (Sfântu Gheorghe) to be the director of the piece, who brings Hamlet, the best-known play by William Shakespeare with the company of Tamási Áron Theatre, Sfântu Gheorghe.

The one of the most renowned Hungarian directors, who won the UNITER (the Romanian Theatrical Union) Award, now stages the classic drama with László Mátray in the title role. In addition to the new Hamlet performance, we invited world-famous production to the Shakespeare Festival.

The Vahtangov Theatre from Moscow represents the Russian theatrical life with their production of Measure for Measure, which was the greatest hit last year in London at the ‘Globe to Globe’ world festival organised at Shakespeare’s Globe Theatre in the year of Olympic Games. There will be a Polish-English company, the Song of the Goat Theatre presenting their Songs of Lear production, with which they won three important prizes in summer of 2012 in Edinburgh.

The world famous English actor Steven Berkoff will also come with his solo play Shakespeare’s villains. The great-voiced Belgian jazz singer Caroll Vanwelden will sing for us. With her CD released in 2012, she got in the best albums of the year in Germany. As the best Hungarian production, you can watch Shakespeare’s Hamlet from Miskolc on the pond stage.

The ‘Makrancos hölgy’ or else The Taming of the Shrew comedy performed by Tompa Miklós Company of Marosvásárhely (Târgu-Mureş) was the great hit of last year, which won prize at several festivals, and now it is on stage also in Gyula on 10 July. Additionally, there will be a selection from Shakespeare’s works with the title All the world’s a stage, and all the men and women merely players performed by the Romanian actor Emil Boroghina.

Two countertenors Gábor Birta and the English performer, professor Nicholas Clapton will sing songs written to Shakespeare words in a concert with the piano-accompaniment of József Balog. The formation W.H. performs Shakespeare’s sonnets and songs. You can watch the production of Company Ildikó Mándy entitled Shakespeare‘s Sonnets performed by Tünde Szalontay.

Hamlet staged by director Sándor Zsótér is this year’s successful work by the acting (2010-2015) class of the University of Theatre and Film Arts. We will host the excellent poet and literary translator Ádám Nádasdy. There will be supplementary programmes: films, kukucska (peep) theatre, street theatre and culinary art – theatrical workshop for secondary school students with the title of Shakespeare’s cuisine."

József Gedeon - festival director

The Shakespeare Festival will be held at Castle Theatre Gyula
Address: 5700, Gyula, Kossuth u. 13.
Tel.: +36/66/463-148, +36/30/6399062

Source and more information:  www.gyulaivarszinhaz.hu , www.shakespearefesztival.hu