'New Beginnings' in Guildford

The Winter’s Tale in Feb 2016 was the Guildford Shakespeare company’s 10th anniversary piece.

It’s a play which marks ‘new beginnings’, and was performed in the Holy Trinity church which, with its roof restored, is experiencing a new start of its own...

The Guildford Shakespeare Company takes Shakespeare to venues around Guildford and recently finished performing a version of King Lear with Brian Blessed, a local actor whose daughter was acting with the company at the time.

The play was performed in the Holy Trinity Church, a Georgian building which was rebuilt in 1764.

In its churchyard lies George Abbot, the Archbishop of Canterbury in 1611. During his lifetime, he might have seen performances by Shakespeare. Abbott was born in the town and was one of the translators of the King James Bible.

Guildford is historically a staging post on the way to Portsmouth. At the time of Shakespeare there were around seven inns in the high street for travellers to stop over.

The Guildford Shakespeare Company also do “sonnet walks” around Guildford where they make the most of the town’s Elizabethan history. Performers are disguised as characters such as dustbin men who leap out at audiences!