COLD SWEAT & SELECTED WORKS: TABLE TOP SHAKESPEARE Will Embark on UK Tour

Forced Entertainment have announced a return to UK stages this Autumn/Winter following their 40th anniversary season in 2024. The UK premiere of new theatre work Cold Sweat will open at Sheffield Theatre's Tanya Moiseiwitsch Playhouse (2 & 3 Oct) before transferring to the Purcell Room at London's Southbank Centre (9 & 10 Oct) and touring to Nuffield Theatre in Lancaster (14 Oct) and features original texts and sound from the group's Artistic Director, Tim Etchells.

Tim said: 'Cold Sweat is the second of our projects made using texts written by me but spoken by AI software and then lip-synced by live performers. It's an uncanny mix of the real and the unreal, the physical and the digital - something that becomes comical and absurd, but also something deeply unsettling. What's really interesting about this piece is also that it hovers between something 'naturalistic' or 'movie-like' and something much more poetic and strange. There's a visceral intimacy to it too, which audiences really respond to…'

Layering music loops with AI-generated voices, the performance sees the group return to the lip-syncing mode of their epic Signal to Noise, which premiered in 2024 as part of the 40th anniversary season, mapping their bodies to the strange rhythms and tonalities that the nonhuman voices produce.

The figures onstage are channelling confusion, struggling to articulate desires, dreams and uncertainties, looping their way through speeches and statements that shift between heartfelt revelation and the recitation of cliches. Through the layers of irony, through the walls of borrowed sound, through the mask of Forced Entertainment's virtuoso performances, something real is trying to emerge.

In November, Forced Entertainment will then tour their enduringly popular condensed versions of some of Shakespeare's iconic plays, creating lovingly made miniatures played out on a one metre table top using a collection of ordinary everyday objects. Selected Works: Table Top Shakespeare will tour to venues across the North of England including Sheffield Theatres (10-12 Nov), Cast, Doncaster (13 & 14 Nov), Barnsley Civic (17 -19 Nov) and Shakespeare North Playhouse, Prescot (26 - 28 Nov).

Tim Etchells said: 'The table top Shakespeare pieces are pretty unusual in the body of our work but they're a fantastic introduction to the playful performer-led approach we have - really accessible and dynamic tellings of the Shakespeare stories in everyday language that really open things up and connect for audiences. What we love also is that the low level puppetry we use in the project - everyday domestic objects are arranged on the table top and used as stand-ins for the characters - is both ridiculous and comical, and at the same time serious and truly effective theatrically.'

Each work re-tells the story of a Shakespeare play. A performer sits at a table and using a collection of household objects as stand-ins for the characters explores the dynamic force of storytelling in a simple, unique and highly accessible way.

The schedule of works at Sheffield Theatres will include The Two Gentlemen of Verona and Macbeth on Tue 10 Nov, Much Ado About Nothing and Richard III on Wed 11 Nov and The Merchant of Venice and The Tempest on Thu 12 Nov.

At Cast, Doncaster the schedule will be The Comedy of Errors and King Lear on Fri 13 Nov, Romeo and Juliet and Julius Caesar on Sat 14 Nov matinee and Love's Labour's Lost and Hamlet on Sat 14 Nov evening.

The schedule at Barnsley Civic includes Coriolanus and Measure for Measure on Tue 17 Nov, A Midsummer Night's Dream and The Winter's Tale on Wed 18 Nov and Twelfth Night and Othello on Thu 19 Nov.

Finally, the schedule at Shakespeare North Playhouse will include Coriolanus and Measure for Measure on Thu 26 Nov, The Winter's Tale and A Midsummer Night's Dream on Fri 27 Nov and Twelfth Night and Othello on Sat 28 Nov.

Cold Sweat - UK premiere

Tanya Moiseiwitsch Playhouse, Sheffield Theatres
2 & 3 Oct 2026
sheffieldtheatres.co.uk

Purcell Room, Southbank Centre, London
9 & 10 Oct 2026
southbankcentre.co.uk

Nuffield Theatre, Lancaster
14 Oct 2026
http://www.lancasterarts.org/

Selected Works: Table Top Shakespeare

Tanya Moiseiwitsch Playhouse, Sheffield Theatres
10 - 12 Nov 2026
sheffieldtheatres.co.uk

Cast, Doncaster
13 & 14 Nov
castindoncaster.com

Barnsley Civic
17 - 19 Nov
barnsleycivic.co.uk

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