Thirty-six Shakespeare plays across eight days – and not an actor in sight. Instead, one performer tells the story using a cast of household items, including jam jars, pepper grinders and a cheese grater. Lenny Ann Low talks to Tim Etchells, Artistic Director of renowned UK company Forced Entertainment, about its production Complete Works: Table Top Shakespeare, which is headed for the Adelaide Festival.

A linseed bottle and metal bottle sit on a table for a scene from Forced Entertainment’s Complete Works: Table Top Shakespeare.
A scene from Forced Entertainment’s Complete Works: Table Top Shakespeare. Photo © Hugo Glendinning

In the centre of a mostly bare stage, a woman sits at a table and introduces characters from probably the world’s most famous play.

“Claudius,” she says, placing a red-capped plastic container of...