The best in independent stage and screen performances arrive at The Market Place Theatre in Armagh next week.
On Wednesday 17 November, a real tour de force arrives on stage, evocatively depicting the Jacobean world in which William Shakespeare created his works of genius. London was dangerous in 1606. William Shakespeare is isolated in his rooms to avoid contagion. Rampant plague spreads death while bewildered citizens try any quack remedy to halt its progress. A suspicious king shaken by the recent gun-powder plot, sees plotters everywhere; a wrong word risks imprisonment death or worse. Meanwhile, Mister Shakespeare is trying to cope. Actors shout for new roles; playwrights beg to collaborate; his brother whines for help, his wife wants her marriage back; his lover wants …love. Despite the clamour, Shakespeare is inspired to write at least three of the masterpieces we know today, King Lear, Antony and Cleopatra and Macbeth.
On Friday 19 November, a gem of a film will be screened. ‘Nowhere Special’ features James Norton and Daniel Lamont in this heartfelt Belfast-set drama about a single father determined to do the best by his son before he dies.
John, a 35-year-old window cleaner, lives with his three-year-old son Michael. He was recently diagnosed with terminal cancer and has decided that he will find the best family to take Michael in after his death. Against the advice of the adoption agency he’s working with, John cannot face telling his son the truth, taking him on visits to prospective families under the guise of visiting new friends. But as his condition starts to show, he begins to ponder what his legacy should be for his son – should Michael start life anew or should John leave him with the tools that would allow him, later in life, to know the father he had. A heart-rending, yet peaceful and uplifting story.
Tickets for all performances can be booked through the Box Office on [028] 3752 1821, or online at www.visitarmagh.com/marketplacetheatre