The Book of Will to premiere at Queen’s Theatre Hornchurch

The Book of Will has been described as a “hilarious” and “fast-paced” play (Credit: Queen’s Theatre)

Queen’s Theatre Hornchurch has announced it will work with two other theatres to produce the European premiere of The Book of Will for 2023.

The play is about Shakespeare’s old acting friends who are furious when a pirated Hamlet rip-off hits a stage near the Globe Theatre just three years after his death.

They decide to gather the Bard’s scattered masterpieces and save his words before they are lost to history.

The Book of Will was written by one of the USA’s most celebrated playwrights, Lauren Gunderson, who most recently wrote the acclaimed adaptation of The Time Traveller’s Wife.

It will open at the Queen’s Theatre Hornchurch from 27 April to 13 May before transferring to the Octagon Theatre Bolton from 17 May to 3 June. It will finish at the recently opened Shakespeare North Playhouse from 19 October to 11 November.

The production will coincide with the 400th anniversary of the publishing of the First Folio of Shakespeare’s plays in 1623 and will be directed by the Octagon’s artistic director Lotte Wakeham.

The cast and creatives have not been announced yet. The date tickets go on sale for performances at the Queen’s Theatre will be revealed shortly.

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