Sh!tfaced Shakespeare Review
The Insanity and Hilarity of Sh!tfaced Shakespeare’s Much Ado About Nothing
On Saturday night I went to watch Much Ado About Nothing at the Leicester Square Theatre, performed by the Shitfaced Shakespeare company. The premise of the production is that one actor gets drunk out of their mind and the audience (and cast-mates alike) see where the play goes. If you want a classy night filled with beautiful, intricate, sometimes highfalutin soliloquies in Shakespearean tongue, you may want to give this one a miss. Although, plied with half a bottle of Jim Beam and five pints of Birra Moretti, there will certainly be one actor whose language you struggle to understand…
After seeing this play I was desperate to sing its praises - a desire that was only heightened after reading Mark Lawson’s one star review in The Guardian, where he describes his experience as '“staggeringly bad” and implies attendees may leave “pissed off”. I had an amazing experience, and am undoubtably on the side of productions like this, that to me, seem to be succeeding in their mission to make theatre (and Shakespeare) more accessible and enticing to all. Lawson’s 1 star review compared to my glowing 5 is testament to the triumph that each show brings something completely new and different.
The production is immersive theatre at its finest and extremely inclusive. Be warned, if you do not wish to be pulled up on stage, wear a Shakespearean dress and moan sex noises into a microphone like my boyfriend, then do not book tickets in the front row. At the start of the production, the audience is directly addressed by a jester-like showman whose role is to facilitate the actor’s drinking, and (attempt) to ensure the play moves in some kind of direction - hopefully towards its ending. At times this created genuine tension between him and the drunk, which in itself became a farce akin to watching your pissed friend attempt to shove an even more pissed friend into an Uber after one too many at the pub.
A shitfaced, Benedick resigns himself to the floor and apologises for interfering with the play’s action.
I was constantly engaged (and slightly on edge) throughout the production as at any time, an audience member could interfere with the action. Instruments are handed out from tambourines to cowbells to two volunteers in the crowd. When they choose to play the instrument the cast must all freeze - bar the drunk - so that a bottle of Moretti can be popped open by the jester, poured into a pint glass and handed to the shitfaced actor. To cover themselves as “medically responsible”, it is a different actor on rotation who gets drunk at each performance. Whilst the play is performed by six actors, I have heard the entire Shitfaced Shakespeare company is made up of around 30 professionally trained thespians, which should help to fairly distribute those hangovers.
On our night, we got to watch a hilarious, perfectly rowdy, John Mitton, actor and founder of the Sky Blue Theatre company. At one point during the show, with a glint in his eye and pint glass in hand for what the audience perceived too long, he began downing the drink to the tune of the jolly audience chanting, “down it, down it…”. This sparked an argument between Mitton, playing Benedick, and various audience members who he accused of promoting alcoholism with an ironic drunk slur and cheeky smirk.
Perhaps one of the most heartwarming touches of the night were the regulars in the crowd. Next to us sat a man who was recognised by the actor in spite of his intoxication. On noticing him in the front row he would constantly catch his eye, smile, mouth ‘I love you’ and turn his fingers into heart signs. The man mentioned that himself and others regularly watch the company’s performances, the improvisational nature allowing for a completely different performance every time, helped by the fact the actor’s more regularly than not go completely off-script. The only constant is that sober or shitfaced, you are destined to have a hilarious night.