The Pantaloons
 The Pantaloons logo | |
| Formation | 2004 |
|---|---|
| Type | Theatre group |
| Purpose | comedy, open air, Shakespeare |
| Location |
|
Artistic director(s) | Steve Purcell, Caitlin Storey, Mark Hayward |
Notable members | Christopher Smart, Ross Drury, Edward Ferrow, Martin Gibbons, Kelly Griffiths, Neil Jennings, Alex Rivers, |
| Website | http://thepantaloons.co.uk |
The Pantaloons are an English touring theatre company specialising in open-air productions of the plays of William Shakespeare. Their work draws from a wide variety of popular theatre traditions, and is often performed for free in public spaces.
History
The Pantaloons were founded in 2004 at the University of Kent, performing an all-male, open-air production of As You Like It in Canterbury, Kent.[1] They regrouped the following year for a small-scale tour of The Winter’s Tale, which involved their first free performances at the Edinburgh Festival Fringe.[2] The scale of their tours has increased since then, and the company now tour extensively across the UK.
The Pantaloons have produced a variety of free performances every year since 2005 in public spaces such as The Scoop, London, Preston Park, Brighton, and the Royal Botanic Garden Edinburgh.
Since their foundation, the company have performed:
- As You Like It (2004)
- The Winter’s Tale (2005)
- Romeo and Juliet (2006)
- Cymbeline (2006)
- A Midsummer Night’s Dream (2007 and 2013)
- The Taming of the Shrew (2008)
- Romeo and Juliet (2009)
- Twelfth Night (2009)
- Much Ado About Nothing (2010)
- Macbeth (2010)
- A Christmas Carol (2010, 2011 and 2012)
- The Canterbury Tales (2011 and 2012)
- The Importance of Being Earnest (2012)
- Grimm Fairy Tales (2012)
- Sherlock Holmes (2013 and 2014)
- The Tempest (2014)
- The Pantaloons' History of Britain (2014)
- Bleak House (2014 and 2015)
The company will tour productions of Pride and Prejudice, Much Ado About Nothing and Treasure Island in summer 2015.[1]
The company began to attract national attention with their 2008 production of The Taming of the Shrew, with coverage in The Guardian and Independent newspapers focusing largely on their free shows and family appeal.[3] Their Romeo and Juliet was listed by The Sunday Times in 2009 as one of their picks for the summer.[4]
As of 2015, the company also give school workshops on Shakespeare for Key Stages 2, 3 and 4.[5]
External links
- Official site of The Pantaloons
- Official site of the Edinburgh Festival Fringe
- Official site of the Brighton Festival Fringe
- Official site of The Scoop