BEDLAM Announces BEDLAM: THE SERIES Featuring Zuzanna Szadkowski, Triney Sandoval and More

BEDLAM has announced BEDLAM: THE SERIES, an episodic New Media Series now in development. Written by Eric Tucker and Musa Gurnis and directed by Eric Tucker, BEDLAM: THE SERIES is an inventive and irreverent Shakespeare mashup that twists together characters and plots from King Lear, The Merry Wives of Windsor, The Merchant of Venice and other plays into a new story that will unfold over 8 episodes, using Shakespeare's own language.

BEDLAM: THE SERIES will be released on a streaming platform to be announced.

Filming begins this month in New York City and the Hudson Valley.

BEDLAM Artistic Director Eric Tucker said, "As a theatre company, most immediately, we need to adapt to our current situation and find ways of staying alive, creating content that serves our mission and vision, while assuring the well-being and livelihood of our regular artists and staff. BEDLAM: THE SERIES, will allow BEDLAM, the small Off-Broadway theatre company, to work in a world where theatre temporarily does not exist. It will be the "new" platform where we realize our work and continue our pursuit to re-visit and reinvigorate the Classics as well as present these texts in a way that is more representative of the world in which we live."

"We will take the plot lines of three Shakespeare plays, along with text from several others and create a series that introduces audiences to William Shakespeare as he has never been experienced before," said Tucker. "We will make Shakespeare's language and characters accessible, exciting and fresh to both Shakespeare fans and Shakespeare newcomers. We will make a series that is both innovative and experimental, engaging a diversity of BIPOC artists across all departments, and all the while in adherence to all necessary Covid safety and health protocols."

Small time crime boss Linda "King" Lear is sick. Her attempt to retire early is a debacle that devolves into a bloody family fight for control of Windsor City. Suddenly forced to retire, Lear splits up the business among her three children, expecting them to take turns caring for her during chemo. But her two oldest daughters, Goneril and Regan, are out for themselves. Lear disowns her youngest, favorite kid, Cordelia, who runs off with a dashing rival crime lord named France. Meanwhile, Lear's top lieutenants are both having family troubles of their own. Frank Ford is sure his wife Alice is stepping out on him with an off-brand Keith Richards, Lear's drinking buddy Falstaff. George Page's daughter Anne is sneaking around with a scumbag called Oswald, and his bastard son Edmund is trying to screw his legitimate brother Edgar out of his inheritance. The rest is BEDLAM.

BEDLAM: THE SERIES will feature Zuzanna Szadkowski, Triney Sandoval, Kaden Kearney, Mike Labbadia, Tracee Beazer, Elan Zafir, Claire Hsu, Ryan Quinn, John Terry, Perri Yaniv, Eric Tucker, Katie Hartke, Shaun Taylor-Corbett, Ted Lewis, Nigel Gore, Musa Gurnis, Arash Mokhtar, Rami Margron, Zachary Fine, Lisa Birnbaum, Ashley Bufkin, Karen Alvarado, Galen Molk, Woody Fu, Murphy Taylor Smith, Maya Margarita, Tiffany Denise Hobbs, Violeta Picayo, Mia Vallet and Caroline Grogan.