Steve Purcell
@stevetpurcell.bsky.social
Academic, director, writer. Co-Artistic Director of The Pantaloons and Associate Professor at the University of Warwick. All views my own.
Reposted by Steve Purcell
What made Troilus and Cressida so relevant to audiences who had lived through two world wars?
Why did it speak to the 'angry young men' of the post-war era and to the countercultural movements of the 1960s?
Find out here 👇
manchesteruniversitypress.co.uk/9781526103574/
@stevetpurcell.bsky.social
Why did it speak to the 'angry young men' of the post-war era and to the countercultural movements of the 1960s?
Find out here 👇
manchesteruniversitypress.co.uk/9781526103574/
@stevetpurcell.bsky.social
November 17, 2025 at 10:16 AM
What made Troilus and Cressida so relevant to audiences who had lived through two world wars?
Why did it speak to the 'angry young men' of the post-war era and to the countercultural movements of the 1960s?
Find out here 👇
manchesteruniversitypress.co.uk/9781526103574/
@stevetpurcell.bsky.social
Why did it speak to the 'angry young men' of the post-war era and to the countercultural movements of the 1960s?
Find out here 👇
manchesteruniversitypress.co.uk/9781526103574/
@stevetpurcell.bsky.social
Another great review! “Hamlet may have lost all his mirth, but the quality of tonight’s performance took The Pantaloons to another level altogether.”
⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️
@thepantaloons.bsky.social
northwestend.com/hamlet-sir-k...
⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️
@thepantaloons.bsky.social
northwestend.com/hamlet-sir-k...
Hamlet – Sir Ken Dodd Performance Garden, Shakespeare North Playhouse - North West End UK
Director Steve Purcell is to be praised for his heavily abridged adaptation which, coming in at less than half the length of the full text, focuses on the family drama at the heart of the play, bringi...
northwestend.com
August 3, 2025 at 8:18 AM
Another great review! “Hamlet may have lost all his mirth, but the quality of tonight’s performance took The Pantaloons to another level altogether.”
⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️
@thepantaloons.bsky.social
northwestend.com/hamlet-sir-k...
⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️
@thepantaloons.bsky.social
northwestend.com/hamlet-sir-k...
A lovely write-up of @thepantaloons.bsky.social Hamlet from the St Albans Times - we even made the front page!
issuu.com/stalbanstime...
Full tour dates are here: thepantaloons.co.uk/hamlet/
issuu.com/stalbanstime...
Full tour dates are here: thepantaloons.co.uk/hamlet/
July 28, 2025 at 10:47 AM
A lovely write-up of @thepantaloons.bsky.social Hamlet from the St Albans Times - we even made the front page!
issuu.com/stalbanstime...
Full tour dates are here: thepantaloons.co.uk/hamlet/
issuu.com/stalbanstime...
Full tour dates are here: thepantaloons.co.uk/hamlet/
Very excited to be contributing to this!
Very happy to say I will be spending a lot more time with these books over the next year or so, as this week I've signed a contract with @manchesterup.bsky.social to edit the first ever academic collection of essays on the landmark BBC anthology series Inside No. 9 🥳 #InsideNo9
July 28, 2025 at 9:30 AM
Very excited to be contributing to this!
Nearing the end of a busy and exciting week opening @thepantaloons.bsky.social Hamlet at St Albans Roman Theatre! Full tour dates are here: thepantaloons.co.uk/hamlet/
July 19, 2025 at 12:28 PM
Nearing the end of a busy and exciting week opening @thepantaloons.bsky.social Hamlet at St Albans Roman Theatre! Full tour dates are here: thepantaloons.co.uk/hamlet/
It's opening night for Hamlet! This has been a very special one to work on. Opening in St Albans before a UK-wide tour: thepantaloons.co.uk/hamlet/
July 14, 2025 at 8:48 AM
It's opening night for Hamlet! This has been a very special one to work on. Opening in St Albans before a UK-wide tour: thepantaloons.co.uk/hamlet/
Reposted by Steve Purcell
Hamlet opens tonight at St Albans Roman Theatre where it runs for a week before heading off on tour! Here's some rehearsal photos of our fantastic cast: new Pantaloons Laura Cooper-Jones and Tamsin Lynes with 'loon veterans Martin Gibbons and Richard Lessen.
July 14, 2025 at 8:33 AM
Hamlet opens tonight at St Albans Roman Theatre where it runs for a week before heading off on tour! Here's some rehearsal photos of our fantastic cast: new Pantaloons Laura Cooper-Jones and Tamsin Lynes with 'loon veterans Martin Gibbons and Richard Lessen.
Free workshop on “Talking to the audience in Hamlet” with me and the cast of @thepantaloons.bsky.social Hamlet! Information and booking here: ovo.org.uk/shows/talkin...
July 8, 2025 at 7:50 AM
Free workshop on “Talking to the audience in Hamlet” with me and the cast of @thepantaloons.bsky.social Hamlet! Information and booking here: ovo.org.uk/shows/talkin...
It was great fun workshopping scenes from Hamlet with @thepantaloons.bsky.social today at the @bsashakespeare.bsky.social conference on the beautiful University of York campus!
June 27, 2025 at 5:12 PM
It was great fun workshopping scenes from Hamlet with @thepantaloons.bsky.social today at the @bsashakespeare.bsky.social conference on the beautiful University of York campus!
Best of luck to the cast of @thepantaloons.bsky.social Robin Hood, opening this weekend! Full tour dates are here: thepantaloons.co.uk/robin-hood/
June 27, 2025 at 7:21 AM
Best of luck to the cast of @thepantaloons.bsky.social Robin Hood, opening this weekend! Full tour dates are here: thepantaloons.co.uk/robin-hood/
Best of luck to the cast of @thepantaloons.bsky.social Sense and Sensibility, which opens this evening! Tour details are here: thepantaloons.co.uk/sense/
May 9, 2025 at 2:58 PM
Best of luck to the cast of @thepantaloons.bsky.social Sense and Sensibility, which opens this evening! Tour details are here: thepantaloons.co.uk/sense/
At Jackson's Lane today doing auditions for @thepantaloons.bsky.social Hamlet!
May 1, 2025 at 11:53 AM
At Jackson's Lane today doing auditions for @thepantaloons.bsky.social Hamlet!
Spent a lovely afternoon at the leafy University of Buckingham, talking to English Literature postgraduates about the performance history of Troilus and Cressida (what else?). Here’s John Barton directing Patrick Stewart and Sebastian Shaw in the play in 1968.
April 30, 2025 at 8:49 PM
Spent a lovely afternoon at the leafy University of Buckingham, talking to English Literature postgraduates about the performance history of Troilus and Cressida (what else?). Here’s John Barton directing Patrick Stewart and Sebastian Shaw in the play in 1968.
One of the things I love about the discovery reported in today’s Guardian is that it puts paid to the prejudice you see in a lot of biofiction that Anne Shakespeare/Hathaway would have been illiterate. Nope!
www.theguardian.com/culture/2025...
www.theguardian.com/culture/2025...
Shakespeare did not leave his wife Anne in Stratford, letter fragment suggests
Professor says text shows Hathaway lived with playwright in London, upending the established idea of an unhappy marriage
www.theguardian.com
April 23, 2025 at 1:21 PM
One of the things I love about the discovery reported in today’s Guardian is that it puts paid to the prejudice you see in a lot of biofiction that Anne Shakespeare/Hathaway would have been illiterate. Nope!
www.theguardian.com/culture/2025...
www.theguardian.com/culture/2025...
Reposted by Steve Purcell
I’m pleased to say that we’re advertising an open ended lectureship in Early Modern English Literature at Glasgow. Details here, and please share:
www.jobs.gla.ac.uk/job/lecturer...
www.jobs.gla.ac.uk/job/lecturer...
Lecturer in Early Modern English Literature (R&T)
College of Arts & HumanitiesSchool of Critical Studies Lecturer in Early Modern English LiteratureVacancy Ref: 170953Salary, Grade 7 / 8, £40,497 - £45,413 / £49,559 - £57,422 per annum The...
www.jobs.gla.ac.uk
April 3, 2025 at 12:20 PM
I’m pleased to say that we’re advertising an open ended lectureship in Early Modern English Literature at Glasgow. Details here, and please share:
www.jobs.gla.ac.uk/job/lecturer...
www.jobs.gla.ac.uk/job/lecturer...
Had a great afternoon at the Shakespeare Institute talking about homosexuality in postwar productions of Troilus and Cressida. Here are Charles Gray as Achilles, Jeremy Brett as Patroclus and Paul Rogers as Pandarus in Tyrone Guthrie’s 1956 production at the Old Vic.
April 3, 2025 at 4:51 PM
Had a great afternoon at the Shakespeare Institute talking about homosexuality in postwar productions of Troilus and Cressida. Here are Charles Gray as Achilles, Jeremy Brett as Patroclus and Paul Rogers as Pandarus in Tyrone Guthrie’s 1956 production at the Old Vic.
My book has a cover! A history of Shakespeare's Troilus and Cressida in performance, from John Dryden's Restoration adaptation to the rediscovery of the play in the twentieth century.
manchesteruniversitypress.co.uk/9781526103574/
manchesteruniversitypress.co.uk/9781526103574/
April 2, 2025 at 4:40 PM
My book has a cover! A history of Shakespeare's Troilus and Cressida in performance, from John Dryden's Restoration adaptation to the rediscovery of the play in the twentieth century.
manchesteruniversitypress.co.uk/9781526103574/
manchesteruniversitypress.co.uk/9781526103574/
Make me a willow cabin at your gate,
And call upon my soul within the house…
Making a willow cabin today at Peace Cottage Community Hub, Hoddesdon.
And call upon my soul within the house…
Making a willow cabin today at Peace Cottage Community Hub, Hoddesdon.
March 29, 2025 at 4:25 PM
Make me a willow cabin at your gate,
And call upon my soul within the house…
Making a willow cabin today at Peace Cottage Community Hub, Hoddesdon.
And call upon my soul within the house…
Making a willow cabin today at Peace Cottage Community Hub, Hoddesdon.
Reposted by Steve Purcell
Such a wonderful and brilliantly written tribute to Claire van Kampen from the Globe’s former artistic director Dominic Dromgoole
www.theguardian.com/stage/2025/j...
www.theguardian.com/stage/2025/j...
Claire van Kampen: a world-class theatre composer and bright star of Shakespeare’s Globe
The pianist, director and playwright of Farinelli and the King, which starred her husband Mark Rylance, is remembered by the Globe’s former artistic director
www.theguardian.com
January 21, 2025 at 3:40 PM
Such a wonderful and brilliantly written tribute to Claire van Kampen from the Globe’s former artistic director Dominic Dromgoole
www.theguardian.com/stage/2025/j...
www.theguardian.com/stage/2025/j...
This is such sad news. Claire van Kampen was a remarkable artist whose work had a huge impact on modern theatre. I was fortunate enough to meet her a few times, and she was a lovely person, too. Sending condolences to all those whose lives she touched.
www.theguardian.com/stage/2025/j...
www.theguardian.com/stage/2025/j...
Director and composer Claire van Kampen dies aged 71
Wife of actor Mark Rylance had worked in various roles at Shakespeare’s Globe theatre and had been diagnosed with cancer
www.theguardian.com
January 18, 2025 at 8:12 PM
This is such sad news. Claire van Kampen was a remarkable artist whose work had a huge impact on modern theatre. I was fortunate enough to meet her a few times, and she was a lovely person, too. Sending condolences to all those whose lives she touched.
www.theguardian.com/stage/2025/j...
www.theguardian.com/stage/2025/j...
Reposted by Steve Purcell
This year’s #BSA2025 in York is shaping up to be a fantastic conference for lovers of all things #shakespeare & #performance. Click to join the conversation here: www.britishshakespeare.ws/call-for-par... then we can all go hit up the snickelways in June!
Call for Participation, second round: - British Shakespeare Association
Practising Shakespeare: new collaborations, expanding horizons British Shakespeare Association Conference Wednesday 25 – Saturday 28 June 2025 School of Arts and Creative Technologies, University of Y...
www.britishshakespeare.ws
January 18, 2025 at 2:47 AM
This year’s #BSA2025 in York is shaping up to be a fantastic conference for lovers of all things #shakespeare & #performance. Click to join the conversation here: www.britishshakespeare.ws/call-for-par... then we can all go hit up the snickelways in June!
Reposted by Steve Purcell
Churchill's play Love and Information was broadcast on @BBCRadio3 last year and was brilliant. If you don't know what all the fuss is about, treat yourself to a great 80 minutes: www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/m...
And do sign the petition: www.change.org/p/save-audio...
And do sign the petition: www.change.org/p/save-audio...
January 17, 2025 at 5:53 PM
Churchill's play Love and Information was broadcast on @BBCRadio3 last year and was brilliant. If you don't know what all the fuss is about, treat yourself to a great 80 minutes: www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/m...
And do sign the petition: www.change.org/p/save-audio...
And do sign the petition: www.change.org/p/save-audio...
A statistical breakdown of the lyrics to We Wish You a Merry Christmas…
December 9, 2024 at 12:53 PM
A statistical breakdown of the lyrics to We Wish You a Merry Christmas…
Feeling very Christmassy after seeing @thepantaloons.bsky.social perform A Christmas Carol at the Southern Maltings, Ware. Catch it if you can!
December 8, 2024 at 6:12 PM
Feeling very Christmassy after seeing @thepantaloons.bsky.social perform A Christmas Carol at the Southern Maltings, Ware. Catch it if you can!
A lovely ⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️ review for our The Pantaloons’ touring production of The Merry Wives of Windsor at Shakespeare North Playhouse yesterday!
northwestend.com/the-merry-wi...
Full tour dates here: thepantaloons.co.uk/merry-wives/
northwestend.com/the-merry-wi...
Full tour dates here: thepantaloons.co.uk/merry-wives/
The Merry Wives of Windsor – Shakespeare North Playhouse - North West End UK
If Shakespeare chose a modern company to perform his work then it would undoubtedly be The Pantaloons; I’m equally sure he would be thrilled with director Steve Purcell’s adaptation of a play that had...
northwestend.com
August 3, 2024 at 3:54 PM
A lovely ⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️ review for our The Pantaloons’ touring production of The Merry Wives of Windsor at Shakespeare North Playhouse yesterday!
northwestend.com/the-merry-wi...
Full tour dates here: thepantaloons.co.uk/merry-wives/
northwestend.com/the-merry-wi...
Full tour dates here: thepantaloons.co.uk/merry-wives/