Tickets are now available for Edward’s Boys’ 2014 production of Galatea, by John Lyly, directed by Perry Mills.
Galatea is a complex, provocative, delightful play with multiple interwoven narrative strands, but at its heart runs the love story of Galatea and Phillida. Lyly wrote the play in the late 1580s and it was first staged for Queen Elizabeth I by the Children of St Paul’s – a renowned troupe of boy actors of the time. Audiences in 2014 will have the opportunity to enjoy Galatea once more staged by an established boys’ company, just as it was when first performed in front of Elizabeth herself.
“Hardly anyone reads Lyly today and virtually no one performs him. All too often therefore we read about him, and then we’re assured he is over-formal – meaning austere, and a pre-cursor of Shakespeare – meaning not worth the effort. It’s been a revelation to start to actually rehearse him. The boys love the play. They find it rich, challenging and continually surprising; and they delight in the playfulness of the language. There was a reason why they were called ‘boy players’.”
Perry Mills, Director
Performance dates
| Date | Venue | Booking details |
| Thursday 13th March, 7.30pm | Lady Margaret Hall, Oxford | Tickets £10 (Concessions – including LMH – £6). Contact Anouska Lester: 01865 274353; eventcoad@lmh.ox.ac.uk |
| Friday 14th March, 7.30pm | Queen Mary’s Grammar School, Walsall | Contact Judy McCoy: 01922 720696; postbox@qmgs.walsall.sch.uk |
| Saturday 15th March, 7.30pm | Levi Fox Hall, King Edward VI School, Stratford-upon-Avon | SOLD OUT |
| Sunday 16th March, 7.30pm | Levi Fox Hall, King Edward VI School, Stratford-upon-Avon | Tickets no longer available to buy online. 13 tickets will be available on the door on the night. |
| Friday 25th April, 7.30pm | Playbox, The Dream Factory, Warwick | Tickets £10 (Concessions £5). Contact: 01926419555; www.playboxtheatre.com |
| Sunday 27th April, 7.00pm | Sam Wanamaker Playhouse, Shakespeare’s Globe, London | Tickets (£30, £25 and £10) now available exclusively from Richard Pearson at King Edward VI School (rbp@kes.net). |