Additional Tickets Now Available for A MIDSUMMER NIGHT'S DREAM at Berkeley Castle

Today, Split Second Productions and Berkeley Castle, have announced they are going to release 50 extra tickets for each performance of A Midsummer Nights Dream due to popular demand. The production, which has sold out all but two performances, opens at the castle on the 17th July and runs until the 27th July.

Extra tickets available today, click this link to book http://www.berkeley-castle.com/whatson.html

2016 marks the 420th anniversary of the wedding between Lord Thomas Berkeley and Elizabeth Carey- the wedding for which William Shakespeare wrote one of the most successful plays in theatre history- A Midsummer Night's Dream. The play was performed for the very first time at the wedding, and in July 2016 it will return to Berkeley Castle for what will be a history-making production of this play. Producer Tom Berkeley holds very close familial ties to the project as he is a descendant of the very Berkeley family for whom the play was written.

Set in the heart of a mythical forest surrounding Athens, four star-crossed lovers, a company of amateur actors and a fairy kingdom will collide to create one of the best-loved tales of falling in love- all in one night. But as we know, and as we are told; "The course of true love never did run smooth."

Split Second Productions is a London-based theatre company formed in 2014. Following a highly successful Edinburgh Fringe Festival season in 2015, the company, in conjunction with Berkeley Castle, began plans for an anniversary performance of A Midsummer Night's Dream. Featuring live music and set amongst the beautiful scenic gardens of Berkeley Castle, this production promises to be as magical and unique as the very play itself.

Berkeley Castle is the oldest Castle in England to be inhabited by the same family that built it. Berkeley Castle is the home of John and Gina Berkeley and the place where their sons Charles & Henry, the 27th generation of the family, grew up.

Dr Jaq Bessell is directing the production. Her career began at the Guthrie Theater in Minneapolis, and she was Head of Research at Shakespeare's Globe under Mark Rylance's tenure. Theatre credits include: Shakespeare's Globe, London: Twelfth Night, A Midsummer Night's Dream, King Lear, Cymbeline, Macbeth, Hamlet, The Tempest, The Two Noble Kinsmen, Julius Caesar, Antony and Cleopatra; Horse Trade Theater Group, New York: punkrock/lovesong (punk rock adaptation of Love's Labour's Lost); American Shakespeare Center /Blackfriars Playhouse, Virginia: Love's Labour's Lost, A Midsummer Night's Dream, Much Ado About Nothing, King Lear, Hamlet, Twelfth Night; Guthrie Theater, Minneapolis: The Playboy of the Western World, Gross Indecency, Stags and Hens; Live Arts, Virginia: Cowboy Mouth, The River; The Pickle Factory, Utah: Macbeth, Romeo and Juliet, Mojo; Performance Research Group, Stratford upon Avon: Antony and Cleopatra, Macbeth. She is the author of several articles and book chapters on Shakespeare, directing, and actor training, and is under contract with Arden Shakespeare for a book on Shakespeare in production on both sides of the Atlantic.

The cast includes Ross White as Oberon/Theseus, Hannah Baxter-Eve as Puck, Natasha Ravenscroft as Titania/Hippolyta, Cory Chambers as Lysander, Alex Myers-Allen as Demetrius, Alex Coppola as Bottom, Madeline Hatt as Helena, Ocean Barrington-Cook as Hermia, Jay Parsons as Quince, Angus Berryman as Egeus/Snug, Lucy-May Orange as Starveling Lou Turner as Snout and Jarrad Ellis Thomas as Flute.

Venue: Berkeley Castle, Gloucestershire, GL13 9BQ

Dates: 7.30 shows on the 17th, 18th, 19th, 20th, 21st, 24th, 25th, 26th & 27th July 2016.

2.30 shows on the 19th, 20th & 21st July 2016.