In its most ambitious undertaking yet, Sport for Jove is staging a new version of Shakespeare’s great history cycle, adapted and directed by Artistic Director Damien Ryan. Tracing the journey from Richard II to Richard III, including the Bard’s plays relating to Henry IV, Henry V and Henry VI, the epic production takes place over two parts. With Shakespeare’s knotty themes including leadership and political systems, the contemporary production should feel very timely. Performed on a set resembling the Globe Theatre, The Player Kings features an excellent cast including John Gaden, Sean O’Shea, Katrina Retallick and Christopher Stollery among others.

Limelight Editor’s Choice

The Player Kings is an extraordinary and unforgettable offering and the biggest undertaking in Sport for Jove’s history. This is Damien Ryan’s brand new adaptation of Shakespeare’s great history cycle – the epic theatrical mirror Shakespeare held up to the eternal human struggle to lead, love and learn to live together.

We live in a virulently polarised world – truth from falsehood barely distinguishable – media smothered by propaganda and partisanship – leadership eccentric to the point of madness –democracy at its most fragile and ambiguous – autocracies thriving and flagrantly proud – and cleptocracy, the ancient art of governing by theft, proving a very adequate solution to the problem of who runs the show! Let’s just say it – we are living in a Shakespearean…tragedy? History? Nightmare? And if we really dare ask ourselves, do we perhaps enjoy the show a little too much to want it to end?