A large-spirited salute to the Bard, this intimate presentation is part biography, part analysis, part performance, and all heart from a great classical actor steeped in Shakespearean knowledge.

Sweet William with Michael Pennington

Performed at the Studio Theatre at Taproot Theatre

November 15, 2019

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November 17, 2019

Due to an unforeseen health concern “Sweet William” has been cancelled. If you currently hold tickets to this event, our ticket office will be in contact with you after Tuesday, Nov. 12 when our box office reopens.
Thank you for your patience.

 

Michael Pennington’s career has spanned more than 40 years and he has played leading roles for the Royal Shakespeare Company, the National Theatre, and the English Shakespeare Company, which he co-founded in 1986. Perhaps best known to film fans as Moff Jerjerrod, commander of the Death Star in Star Wars: Return of the Jedi, he is the author of books on Hamlet, Twelfth Night and A Midsummer Night’s Dream, among others. A large-spirited salute to the Bard, Sweet William is part biography, part analysis, and part performance. Reflecting on his long international experience as a director and leading actor, and having spent some 20,000+ hours onstage performing Shakespeare, Michael Pennington sets out to celebrate the life and work of the theater icon. In his one-man show, Michael Pennington presents the story of Shakespeare’s life and work and his own life’s work with Shakespeare. With only a chair and a red handkerchief on stage, Pennington goes in and out of characters, combining commentary and biography with performances of famous and lesser-known monologues. Building on the facts that are known about Shakespeare’s life, and drawing on the plays themselves, Pennington creates a portrait of the man that he likens to “a letter to my best friend.”