VENUS AND ADONIS
by William Shakespeare
Originally presented at Edinburgh Festival Fringe August 2017 and then The Rose Playhouse, Bankside October 2017, this exciting adaptation of Shakespeares iconic poem is to presented in The Verona Shakespeare Festival in August 2023.
In this dazzling one-man performance, Christopher Hunter reimagined Shakespeare’s Venus and Adonis.
Written when a young man, Venus and Adonis was Shakespeare’s first published work and an instant best seller, in no small part due to its wildly erotic and powerful narrative.
During work on the production, something darker and more sinister began to be revealed. Hunter’s exciting re-imagining of this extraordinary poetry explored the hidden themes of sexual power, lust and love and their catastrophic consequences. Its themes are surprisingly topical and shocking. Audiences quickly discovered that this comic, tragic and at times erotic work, published in 1593, could have been written today.
When examined through the 21st century prism, Venus and Adonis becomes the story of an innocent young boy who walks out of his front door one morning, is sexually assaulted by an older woman, and never returns home.
Reviews of Venus and Adonis, Edinburgh Festival Fringe 2017
‘electrifying … gem of a show …’
The Times (Allan Radcliffe)
‘… I thought I would not see anything else so finely crafted, so movingly delivered for the rest of the fringe.’
The Observer (Clare Brennan)
‘… moving with seemingly complete liberation … beguiles belief that this could be anything but a modern day piece of theatre … wonderfully adapted for the stage, it is performed in a way that will grip audiences from the very outset.’
Theatre Weekly (Greg Stewart)