Dame Harriet Walter and Sir Jonathan Bate to Lead Shakespeare Festival for Prison Leavers

A weekend of performances, talks and film exploring madness in Shakespeare's plays will take place in the Suffolk coastal town of Aldeburgh this May, while also helping create new employment pathways for people leaving the criminal justice system.

Mad About Shakespeare, running from 29 to 31 May at Aldeburgh Jubilee Hall and Aldeburgh Cinema, brings together leading figures from theatre, literature and film including Dame Harriet Walter, Sir Jonathan Bate, Mark Lockyer, Stefan Bednarczyk and Colin Hurley.

The festival has been curated by theatre director Nick Hutchison and will raise funds for Second Stage, a new charity working to provide training, support and employment opportunities within the theatre and live events industry for people leaving prison.

Leading up to the festival, Second Stage and Regeneration Theatre will hold a training course based around the text and themes of Hamlet at HMP Hollesley Bay, an open prison in Suffolk, teaching up to 15 men theatre technical skills and preparing them for jobs post-release and, for some, on-site skills training while released on temporary licence.

In January 2026, Second Stage hosted an Industry Awareness Day at the National Theatre, with contributions from Lord Timpson, (Minister for Prisons, Probation and Reducing Reoffending, as well as an experienced employer through his family's company Timpson), Rosie Brown (supporter and ambassador of the Government's New Futures Network and founder of COOK), Kate Varah (Executive Director and co-CEO of the National Theatre), Prison Governor Emily Thomas and Second Stage Ambassador, Michael Balogun.  Offploy then presented a seminar on how to adapt the workplace to welcome these new recruits. The event was well attended with industry leaders from West End and regional theatres, subsidised and commercial companies, as well as technical companies who support the industry.  The feedback was extremely positive and the day helped increase the charity's potential employer database. 

Since its inception in early 2025, Second Stage has engaged with 65 men and has put six into work; two in full-time positions and four into crewing work.

Second Stage was formed in response to a 2024 SOLT/UK Theatre survey which reported a shortfall in staff to fill backstage jobs across the country, with skills shortages found across most technical roles. At the same time, the prison population has risen by over 80% in the last 30 years and the current population stands at 87,966, just 1% short of full capacity. Herein lies a potential workforce, often with transferable skills from trades including carpentry, electrics, construction, hairdressing and sewing, that could be put to good use within a fast paced and adrenalin fuelled environment, within an artistic community.

The idea for Second Stage came from independent theatre producer Edward Snape, who has over 30 years in commercial and not-for-profit theatre.  He joined up with industry leader Jo Hutchison to do the initial research and develop the idea and contacts to finance and run a pilot scheme. Jo now heads the charity as its Executive Director and Ed sits on the Board of Trustees, alongside Colin Howes (Corporate Lawyer at Harbottle & Lewis, Charity Law Association member and Director of Comic Relief), Emily Thomas, (Governor of HMPPS (YOI) Isis) and Kash Bennett (previously Managing Director and Producer, National Theatre Productions, now Executive Director at Sonia Friedman Productions).  The charity's Ambassador is actor Michael Balogun (The Lehman Trilogy for National Theatre, Romeo & Juliet for Jamie Lloyd Productions, Henry VI, Part 1 for the RSC), who has a personal lived experience of the criminal justice system.

“Second Stage is breaking down barriers and creating meaningful pathways for people leaving the criminal justice system. By opening up backstage roles in theatre, they provide clear routes into skilled employment and enable people to make a lasting contribution to our sector. At the same time, this work directly addresses the challenges theatre employers face in recruiting and retaining the skilled staff on which the creative industries depend.” - SOLT & UK Theatre Co-CEO, Claire Walker

Mad About Shakespeare weekend itinerary:

Friday 29 May

7.30pm: A performance of Lear's Shadow, a 70-minute adaptation of Shakespeare's King Lear devised and performed by Colin Hurley. 

Saturday 30 May

11am: In conversation with academic, biographer, critic, creative writer and broadcaster Sir Jonathan Bate, the author of Mad About Shakespeare. 

2pm: An Aldeburgh Cinema screening of the 1999 film of A Midsummer Night's Dream starring Rupert Everett, Calista Flockhart, Stanley Tucci, Kevin Kline and Michelle Pfeiffer, including a live introduction by director Michael Hoffman. 

7pm: Regeneration Theatre present The Play's The Thing: A One Person Hamlet distilled into 100 minutes and performed by Mark Lockyer and directed by Fiona Laird. 

Sunday 31 May

11am: Dame Harriet Walter will perform passages from her book She Speaks – What Shakespeare's Women Might Have Said, giving voice to the women in Shakespeare too often silenced or marginalised.