ONE MONTH TO GO
Shakespeare’s greatest plays retold with a Dettol bottle, a jar of marmalade and a set of salt and pepper shakers at Sydney Opera House
World-renowned, Ibsen award-winning UK company Forced Entertainment brings its acclaimed production, Table Top Shakespeare, to Sydney for the first time this September – a genuinely accessible, laugh-out-loud way into the Bard for anyone who finds his works intimidating or a slog at school. Suitable for ages 14 and up.
With exactly one month until opening, the Sydney Opera House is counting down to the Sydney premiere of Table Top Shakespeare, presented by internationally acclaimed ensemble Forced Entertainment – the company The Guardian has called “Britain’s most brilliant experimental theatre company” and The Times says is “confounding conventions and exploding audience expectations.”
Six performers take on the whole of Shakespeare’s canon using nothing but everyday household objects – a vase becomes a prince, a jar becomes Juliet, a Dettol bottle plays her nurse, and salt and pepper shakers rule an entire kingdom. Narrated live and entirely from memory, with no fixed script, each retelling strips Shakespeare’s comedies, tragedies and histories back to their essential drama, wit and plot – no prior knowledge of the plays required.
It’s a genuinely different way in for audiences who find Shakespeare’s language intimidating or who haven’t engaged with his work since school, as well as a fresh, funny lens for seasoned theatre-lovers. Forty years into a career built on pulling apart theatrical convention, this marks Forced Entertainment’s first-time tackling Shakespeare – and their first time performing them in Sydney.
Table Top Shakespeare: Selected Works is presented as double bills across the season – two plays per evening over one week, covering comedies, tragedies and histories including Hamlet, Macbeth, Romeo and Juliet, Othello and A Midsummer Night’s Dream.
SHOW INFORMATION:
WHAT: Table Top Shakespeare
WHEN: 22 – 27 September 2026 (one week only)
WHERE: Studio, Sydney Opera House
FOR: Ages 14 and up
PRICES: Tickets from $75 + booking fee.
ABOUT FORCED ENTERTAINMENT
Forced Entertainment is an ensemble of artists founded in 1984, recognised as one of the world’s most influential experimental theatre companies. Winners of the International Ibsen Award, the company has spent over 40 years pulling apart the conventions of narrative, genre and theatre itself, touring their work across the UK, Europe, North America and Japan. Led by Artistic Director Tim Etchells, with performers Robin Arthur, Jerry Killick, Richard Lowdon, Claire Marshall, Cathy Naden and Terry O’Connor.
