All The King’s Fools

From the BBC Ouch Blog:

Six actors with learning difficulties have created a new theatre piece celebrating the role of jesters in history.

The play, All The King’s Fools, is influenced by historical research revealing that some of the most famous jesters of the mid sixteenth century had intellectual disabilities.

“This is really important work uncovering a hidden chapter in the history of popular entertainment. We aim to show the true skill of these historic performers and the debt owed to them by comic entertainers over the last five centuries,” says Director Peet Cooper.

The show is to be performed at Hampton Court Palace in Surrey in the courtyards and cloisters where jesters entertained the Tudor Court nearly 500 years ago.

Inspiration for the project came after Cooper was asked by Hampton Court Palace to play the role of Henry VIII’s fool Will Somer.

When he discovered Somer was said to be a ‘natural fool’ or ‘innocent’, Cooper felt he couldn’t play the role authentically and decided to contact actors who could help.

The performers are from The Misfits, a theatre company which provides opportunities for people with learning disabilities, and who work to challenge discrimination.

Penny Lepisz, Maude Winkler Reid, Marsail Edwards, Paul Prangly, Bill Loveridge and Greg Tibbets incorporate traditional fooling and clowning techniques with their own style of performance.

Music is by musician Sarah Moody who has worked at the Theatre Royal in Bath, the Nottingham Playhouse and for BBC Radio 4.

Marsail Edwards said: “[the audience] will learn that people with learning difficulties can act. They don’t think we can act very well and also they think the words ‘learning difficulties’ means we can’t do a lot, but we can. I think, most of all, people will find our performance moving.”

All The King’s Fools starts on Thursday 24 February 2011 and runs to Sunday 27 February. There are performances at 10.00 and 16.30 each day.