Bard's comedy to get special resort touch

The Royal Shakespeare Company tour will come to Blackpool’s Grand Theatre - with local children getting involved to give it a special taste of the resort.

The show, part of the RSC’s First Encounters programme for seven to 13 year olds, will be performed at Our Lady of the Assumption Catholic Primary School, on Tuesday, November 6, and at Hodgson High School, on Wednesday, November 7, as well as a three-day run at the Grand, from Thursday to Saturday, November 8 to 10.

First Encounters has been running for more than a decade, taking edited versions of the playwright’s classics into communities.

Each performance will feature up to 20 children in a version of one of the play’s speeches, in which Egeon explains how he became separated from his wife and one of his twin sons.

Schools will also be invited to decorate parts of the set ahead of the RSC’s visit to create a sense of their hometown.

Director Alex Thorpe said: “The RSC’s First Encounter’s productions have a long and exciting history of not only giving young audiences their early experiences of Shakespeare and theatre, but also actively involving them in the making of it.

“This production is being built around the places we visit. The professional company will be joined by young performers to help tell some of the story.

"Ephesus, the play’s market town setting, will feel uncannily familiar as locals work together to complete the stage’s design.”