This is the story of a life in the day of Shakespeare's theatre.

About the show

It lasts two hours, including interval.

Favourite Shakespeare line:

'Noddy, get that frock on and get on that stage'.

Merriweather is a one man show, all of the costumes and properties for which come on stage with the performer in his special one-man-theatre that he carries on his back. The show is designed to be entirely self-contained.

The script was inspired by Anthony Holden's book 'Shakespeare', and tells the story of Shakespeare's career, attempting to explain why he wrote what he wrote when he wrote it, as told by a former member of the company, ten years after Will's death.

Merriweather is a fictional character, but only because he never became famous - he could very easily have existed - the acting profession has always had its Merriweathers; able, reliable, voluble, but never quite making it beyond one very good role at just the wrong time for it to be really useful, and then falling back into obscurity. Merriweather worked with the best actors of his day, alongside the greatest literary genius who ever lived.

Shakespeare is among the forty characters that make up the cast; it is Will who gives Merriweather his big chance to join the company, and his appearances in the show are from Merriweather's rather awed perspective. There's been more than one suggestion that the historical Will would have had a Warwickshire accent, and he certainly has in this story; just because he's the greatest literary genius of all time, why shouldn't he have a regional accent?