THE GREAT SHAKESPEARE SHOWDOWN to Play Edinburgh Fringe
Mel Schaffer, Kate Poling and Dan Morrison star in the fictional tale set in Leadville, Colorado.
Flying Solo! Presents will bring The Great Shakespeare Showdown, a new play by Dennis Elkins, to the Edinburgh Festival Fringe this August.
Set in Leadville, Colorado, in the fall of 1882, the 55-minute comedy takes inspiration from the real-life mining community's enthusiasm for William Shakespeare, which extended to naming local mines after the playwright's works and characters.
The action unfolds at the town's Opera House, where famed English actor Charles Goodknight finds himself tricked into an onstage Shakespearean duel against firebrand American actress Harriet Twelvetrees. As the two battle with their knowledge of the Bard, audiences are invited to cheer, hiss, boo and test their own Shakespeare knowledge alongside the residents of the fictionalized mining town.
Kate Poling will star as Harriet Twelvetrees opposite Dan Morrison as Charles Goodknight, with Mel Schaffer as Billy, the miner who serves as master of ceremonies for the showdown.
Poling returns to the Edinburgh Fringe after appearing in Gertrude and Ophelia in Hell in 2022. Her credits also include Puppet Julius Caesar in New York and productions of Romeo and Juliet and A Midsummer Night's Dream at Denver Center for the Performing Arts.
Schaffer makes their Edinburgh debut following appearances in Little Women, Miss Holmes and A Chorus Line at Phamaly Theatre Company, as well as Dracula: A Feminist Revenge Fantasy, Really and The Laramie Project at the Arvada Center.
Also making his Edinburgh debut, Morrison has performed in New York and regionally and internationally, with credits spanning the United States, England, Italy and Japan. He holds an MFA in theater performance from the American Conservatory Theater and co-founded The New Collectives in 2012.
Elkins' play marks the latest Edinburgh Fringe production from Flying Solo! Presents and the company's second collaboration with the playwright. The company previously brought Elizabeth I: In Her Own Words to the 2024 festival.
Penny Cole directs and produces the production.
The Great Shakespeare Showdown will play the Haldane Theatre at theSpace @ Surgeons' Hall, with previews August 7–8 and performances August 10–22 at 3:10 p.m. Tickets range from £5 for previews to £10 for full-price admission. The production is recommended for ages 8 and older and includes audience participation and a recorded gunshot.
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