NODA Nomination for Best Regional Production
Working in the Following Genre:
Full-Length Plays
"Nay, Remember Me!" "Nay, Remember Me!" A Comedy-Drama about Shakespeare and the printing of his plays in 1623.
"Nay, Remember Me!" is a comedy about the publishing of the First Folio of 1623. "Nay, Remember Me!" is the perfect piece for amateur and or professional groups. Shakespeare appears as a ghost, there is cross-dressing, one of Will's plays is destroyed during the printing process, there is a death, babies are born, someone goes blind, wives get upset! The play also pops over the Atlantic to meet Folger, the oil baron who spent a fortune on collecting First Folios and spent millions of dollars setting up the Folger Library. The action occasionally takes a peep at modern-day Stratford-upon-Avon to marvel at Shakespeare's legacy, just to keep the audience on their toes!
Knowledge of Shakespeare's plays is not a prerequisite to produce "Nay, Remember Me!" |
Performance History. First performed as part of the Royal Shakespeare Company's Fringe Festival to sell-out audiences.
"Nay, Remember Me!" was first performed as part of the Royal Shakespeare Company's Fringe Festival to sell-out audiences in 2001, directed and designed by Chris Bassett. It was produced by Malvern Theatre Players (MTP) in 2010 and performed at the Coach House Theatre in Malvern. It then toured to the Spanish Barn Theatre at Torre Abbey in Torquay. Where it was nominated for a prize by NODA for the Best Regional Production Award for Best Drama. NODA's representative, Trevor Guest, said, "Nay, Remember Me! has both humour and pathos, and the script is exceptionally well-written."
The play formed the centrepiece of the Malvern Shakespeare Folio 400 Festival in Malvern in November 2023.
The Woodland Drama Group in Harrogate, Yorkshire, will perform the play in June 2025, following a successful play reading in 2024. |
Reviews from the 2023 Production
“Nay, Remember Me! reminded me of a play by Caryl Churchill.
I enjoyed it immensely!” Annie Vickers, November 10th 2023.
“Nay, Remember Me! invigorated my enthusiasm for Shakespeare. The play was very entertaining and informative.” John Stack, November 10th 2023.
“I really enjoyed Nay, Remember Me! A huge well done to the playwright and the cast and crew for pulling it off so well. Wonderful time shifts, a real sense of character, and story-telling to keep the action bowling along. I loved the set, too, and the fluid use of the space.” Professor Judith Buchanan, Master of St. Peter’s College and Shakespeare Scholar, Oxford University, November 8 2023. |
Background information - the First Folio
There is no mightier figure than William Shakespeare. The First Folio – is a volume of 36 of Shakespeare's plays gathered together for the first time and published in 162. This large Folio edition - about the size of an A3 page - was unique for the time. Plays had never been published in such a handsome volume before. Only the Bible and books of heraldry had ever received such dedicated attention before. The idea for the Folio was the brainchild of two actors, John Heminges and Henry Condell, who worked with William Shakespeare for many years. The full title of the First Folio is "Mr. William Shakespeares Comedies, Histories, & Tragedies. Published according to the true originall copies". As a tribute to their friend, Heminges and Condell wanted to put forward the best possible version of Shakespeare's plays, so they used original prompt books, quartos, and original notes to collate the final collection of his plays. 18 of Shakespeare's plays would have been lost without it. |
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