ROLL up, roll up, for Shakespeare slapstick set in a circus from Petersfield’s Lion and Unicorn Players.

The Festival Hall will have all the atmosphere of a big top for a bold, madcap and colourful production of The Comedy of Errors which will well and truly reach out to its audience.

“When Shakespeare’s plays were first performed, the actors had to fight for the attention of the audience, so they had to be big and bold,” director Laura Sheppard explained. “Having said that, once the audiences were engaged, the participated fully – booing, cheering and shouting out.

“Audiences are very different now, and listen very respectfully, but I decided to embrace a larger than life style to suit to play and the Festival Hall.

“The play is one of Shakespeare’s early and is very farcical, with many instances of characters talking directly to the audience, and I wanted the actors to reach out from the stage to include the whole of the raked seating in the Festival Hall.”

When she decided to set it in a circus it was inspired by a Royal Shakespeare Company production in 1983.

The Comedy of Errors in The Festival Hall, Petersfield, runs from November 3-5, at 7.30pm, with a Saturday matinee at 2.30pm. Tickets are £12, and £6 for students and children, available from One Tree Books on 01730 261199 or online at www.lionandunicornplayers.co.uk