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  Kolbrunbjort.com

SHAKEPSPEARE IN HELL

GONERIL         Shut your mouth, dame, (tears her hair back)
Or with this paper shall I stop it: (pushes a letter in her mouth)

I dare do all that may become a man;
Who dares do more is none.


LADY                Your spirits shine through you.
Ay, in the catalogue ye go for men;
As hounds and greyhounds, mongrels, spaniels, curs,
Shoughs, water-rugs and demi-wolves, are clept
All by the name of dogs.

When you durst do it, then you were a man;
And, to be more than what you were, you would
Be so much more the man.

My hands are of your colour; but I shame
To wear a heart as white.

Your face, is as a book where men
May read strange matters. To beguile the time,
Look like the time; bear welcome in your eye,
Your hand, your tongue: look like the innocent flower,
But be the serpent under't.

False face must hide what the false heart doth know.
Only look up clear;
To alter favour ever is to fear:


GONERIL         Safer than trust too far:
Let me still take away the harms I fear,
Not fear still to be taken:

The best and soundest of his time hath been but
rash;
Now, by my life,
Old fools are babes again; and must be used
With cheques as flatteries,--when they are seen abused.

By day and night he wrongs me; every hour
He flashes into one gross crime or other,
That sets us all at odds: I'll not endure it:


© Kolbrún Björt Sigfúsdóttir
Enquire about the rights to Shakespeare in Hell here.

Rather than detract from the integrity of the characters, if anything the Shakespearean-style script by Kolbrun Björt Sigfusdottir and Emily Carding gave the performers scope to add greater depth to their portrayals, through playing their reactions to different situations.
Lucy Corley


Follow Ariel through Dante´s nine circles of Hell to discover the blood spattered histories of eighteen of Shakespeare's most memorable characters as they collide with likewise guilty sinners from the Bard's canon. Faithlessness, lust, gluttony, greed, wrath, heresy, violence, fraud and treachery are their sins. 

What are you going to Hell for?


​The idea behind Shakespeare in Hell came when Emily Carding and Kolbrún Björt Sigfúsdóttir met up to discuss possible future endeavors. They realised that their re-mashing of Shakespeare so far had a distinct relationship to Hell, Kolbrún had previously set Juliet and Ophelia at the gates of Hell in My Only Love Sprung from My Only Hate and Emily had mashed up Dr Faustus with The Tempest to allow Ariel to have his revenge on his master. These became the first two scenes in a new play, Shakespeare in Hell. 

After much consideration Kolbrún decided there needed to be a structure to this Hell so she got a copy of Dante's Inferno and added it to the mix. With Dana Bowman the three of them pondered which Shakespeare characters would end up where and from there on Kolbrún began her quest to create the next seven layers of Hell and fill them with these chosen inhabitants. What would Richard III say to Henry the Fifth? What happened to spirits in Hell? And why was Shylock there? With her work with the actresses on the rehearsal floor to spur her on to the next scene, piece by piece the ultimate Shakespeare mash up was made. 

Creators: Emily Carding, Kolbrún Björt Sigfúsdottir and Dana Bowman.
Mashed by Kolbrun Björt Sigfúsdóttir and Emily Carding.

A dummy’s guide to the most conflicted of the Shakespearean characters, but from a different perspective, a Dante perception. 
Ellen Waddell

A painstakingly researched, smoothly crafted re-imagining of what happens to those who think themselves above the judgment of their author or audience. 
Madeleine Golding

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  • Home
  • Directing
    • Sandcastles
    • Red Alert Cancer!
    • hang
    • Me and My Sister Tell Each Other Everything
    • Maryland
    • Happy Ark Day :)
    • (Can This Be) Home
    • Hamlet (an experience)
    • Richard III (a one-person show)
    • Knots
    • The Maids
    • We Got Now
    • The House That Melts With The Rain
    • Creepie Stool
    • The Bruce in Ireland
    • Bitter Sweet
    • Shakespeare in Hell
    • Titus Andronicus
    • The Lion, The Witch and The Wardrobe
    • Notes on Some Persons, Starting to Crack
    • Coriolanus
    • King Lear
    • Það dansar enginn við sjálfan sig / Nobody Dances with Themselves
    • Mávurinn / The Seagull
    • Kjöt / Meat
    • Script in hand
  • Writing
    • Deliverance
    • Two People, Alone
    • Kit Kat
    • 24 Plays - 2017
    • (Can This Be) Home
  • CV
  • Blog
  • Contact