For one night only Spymonkey brings you an evening of cabaret with a hilarious and joyful mash-up of clown and Shakespeare, on Friday July 15th.

Celebrating the 400th anniversary of the death of the Bard, and in conjunction with their hit show The Complete Deaths, ‘Four of the greatest clowns working in Britain today’ (Time Out) will present a night of genius comedy highlights from the show, as well as guest acts by friends and collaborators.

Acts include Cleopatra and her Asps, The Burning of Joan Of Arc, Duff MacDuff, and The Death of Hector reimagined as 80s Electropop. Tim Crouch appears as his alter ego Malvolio – a hilarious and often unsettling rant from the nattiest wearer of cross-gartered stockings known to 17th-century fashion.

Illustrator Chris Riddell reinvents audience members as their favourite Shakespearean characters through his live drawing, and The Great Shakespearean Deaths Card Gayme (a Chris Riddell/Spymonkey collaboration) will enjoy its first ever world championship.

You’ll have a chance to put your questions directly to Shakespeare (dropping in from heaven for an exclusive Q&A) and enjoy Swank Street Theatre’s Bard Women, comically re-enacting beloved scenes from Romeo and Juliet, Macbeth and Much Ado about Nothing.

Hear vocalist Nia Lynn perform a spell-binding version of Shakespeare’s songs and sonnets, set to a haunting jazz arrangement and party queen DJ Darlo will be mixing some Elizabethan and new world beats to give a whole new meaning to ‘getting jiggy’.

Come dressed as your favourite Shakespeare character – dead or alive – with prizes for the most distressingly realistic.

http://www.bl.uk/events/late-at-the-library-spymonkeys-shakespeare-cabaret