Residents Stage 12th Nite

Download your 12th Nite programme and script here: Programme and Script

On the 3rd & 4th February 2023, the residents of Camphill MK will perform for you a ‘Punked Panto’ – their steam-punk version of Shakespeare’s Twelfth Night.

12th Nite will be performed in the Chrysalis Theatre to the general public over two nights. The performance runs for c.1-hour and brings together months of script-writing, story-boarding, make-up workshops and drama workhops by residents who take part in weekly performing arts workshops.

You can buy tickets online: https://www.ticketsource.co.uk/chrysalismk/12th-nite-at-camphill-milton-keynes/e-lmdzal or in person at the Camphill café

About our Play

Tis Christmas and the twins Viola and Sebastian are off to visit family, but en route a storm hits and they are shipwrecked and lost to each other. Viola sets off to work for Duke Orsino disguised as a boy while she waits for news of her brother, but soon becomes entangled in a love triangle with comic and dramatic turns. Will Viola ever see Sebastian again, and who will gets their hearts desire, it needs an Epiphany which under the watchful pen of Bill Shakespeare hopefully it will all be sorted by 12th Night.

The idea of doing a Shakespearian play came during our visit to Stratford Upon Avon in August 2022, there are many challenges when putting on Shakespeare, but these increase for adults with support needs when some members of the cast struggle with memory, physical movement, reading, and hearing. Therefore, this adaptation of Shakespeare’s classic “romcom” has been created to enable all our Camphill Performing Arts Workshop (PAW) participants to engage with Shakespearian drama, regardless of support need. Our four PAW groups have each contributed to the performance, Open Stage has written a sea shanty and other musical pieces, while Up Stage has devised and will perform the prologue, Back Stage has designed make-up, lighting and props, whilst Centre Stage has undertaken the main body of the performance. By devising the script in workshops we have been able to make it accessible for all through improvised scenes, storytelling, written and picture scripts, and sign language. During the planning the group
opted for a Panto style of performance, a style our groups love and have experience of, with a Steampunk theme so that each actor could chose their own costume and be creative in its adornments.

Camphill’s aims are to encourage lifelong learning through engagement and experience, by tackling such a theatrical giant as Shakespeare we demonstrate the inclusive nature of performance and participants build confidence and communication skills. This is not the traditional version of Shakespeare’s classic, but through this adaption we have made a version that is accessible to all while staying true to the essence of the play, hence it is Bill Shakespeare’s
12th Nite: A Punked Panto.