Shakespeare Screenings Hackney
It’s little known that William Shakespeare lived and worked in East London. Romeo and Juliet and Henry V both were premiered at The Curtain Theatre on Curtain Rd, Shoreditch.
To commemorate 400 years since the death the death of this local hero, Glastonbury stalwarts The Lost Picture Show have teamed up with Hackney Council to put on free screenings of the finest cinematic Shakespeares – outdoor under the stars in parks and squares across Hackney.
Additionally, there are 2 indoor screenings in Stoke Newington and Shoreditch.
Outdoor screenings are free, but places can be booked at http://shakespeareinshoreditch.in/shakespearescreenings/
Dates and details below:
Romeo + Juliet
Thursday 28th April
Hoxton Square, Shoreditch, N1 6NU (outdoor)
FREE!
The greatest love story ever told gets an all-singing, all-dancing update from Baz Luhrmann (Strictly Ballroom, Moulin Rouge). Present-day America stands in for Italy, guns replace swords, and a fresh-faced young Leonardo di Caprio falls headlong for his Juliet, their love separated by a fierce gang war. Full of garish energy, frenzied gun battles and a dance-along soundtrack, this is about as far from the dusty image of Shakespeare as you can get.
Screening under the stars in Hoxton Square, a stone’s throw from where the play was first performed over 400 years ago.
Shakespeare In Love
Saturday 23rd April
Dalston Square, Dalston, E8 3GP (outdoor)
FREE!
The true(ish) story of the making of the greatest love story ever told. Young Will Shakespeare is broke, his last play was a flop, his theatre about to be repossessed, and to cap it off he has a terrible case of writer’s block, unable to finish his latest masterpiece “Romeo and Ethel, the pirate’s daughter”. Enter his own Juliet (Gwyneth Paltrow) to put a spring back in his step and inspire his most romantic piece of theatre.
The stage is set for a funny, touching, and not entirely historically accurate romance stuffed with British acting royalty (Colin Firth, Simon Callow, even Judy Dench as Queen Elizabeth) that nabbed 7 Oscars including Best Picture.
Macbeth (2015)
Saturday 30th April
Gillett Square, Dalston, N16 8JN
FREE!
Hackney local boy Michael Fassbender takes on the meatiest of all Shakespeare’s roles in last year’s modern, gritty re-telling of “the Scottish This adaptation is strong medicine indeed with ferocious battle scenes, intense performances from a never-better Fassbender and Marion Cotillard as Lady Macbeth, and sweeping, atmospheric camera work. This is proper, intelligent Shakespeare that crackles with a fiery, guttural energy.
Romeo + Juliet
Thursday 21st April
The Old Church, Stoke Newington Church St, N16 9ES
Tickets £10, available at http://shakespeareinshoreditch.in/shakespearescreenings/
Due to popular demand, and extra indoor screening of Baz Luhrmann’s Romeo+Juliet, in the atmospheric surroundings of Hackney’s oldest building, The Old Church in Stoke Newington.
My Own Private Idaho
Friday 29th April
The Courthouse Hotel, 335-337 Old Street, Shoreditch, EC1V 9LL
Tickets: £8, available at http://shakespeareinshoreditch.in/shakespearescreenings/
Gus Van Sant’s 1991 cult classic is loosely based on Shakespeare’s ‘Henry IV’ but branches off in a far more unexpected direction. River Phoenix and Keanu Reeves star as two street hustlers wandering through the seedy underworld of contemporary America, encountering drugs, low lives, houses that fall from the sky, and roads that stretch to the horizon. Phoenix’s turn as the vulnerable, narcoleptic Mike is outstanding and director Van Sant creates a potent, dreamy ambience, while capturing the grungy aesthetic of the early 90s, that makes this New Queer Cinema classic one of the more singular films of that decade.
Presented by Fringe! Film & Arts Festival at the brand new Courthouse Hotel, an art deco restoration of Shoreditch’s old Court House building – a sneak peak at London’s latest intimate screening venue, before it opens to the public in May.