A Dream
by Chris Bush
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Cast: 5f 5m or more (very large cast is possible, over 80 roles)
Performance fee: £105 per performance (plus VAT where applicable)
Packed with songs, mischief and mistaken identities, this riotous and joyful play transports Shakespeare’s most beloved characters to the chaos of a busy modern-day hospital.
Romeo and Jules are recovering from an accidental overdose, Antony and Cleo are reminiscing in the waiting room, and Beatrice and Benedict are bickering over the cause of the latter’s knee operation.
As night falls on A&E, and Pharmacist Puck starts to dole out medicine, a very midsummer madness begins to take root…
A Dream was first performed at the Crucible Theatre, Sheffield, in a production by Sheffield People’s Theatre.
Music: A Dream contains multiple original songs, featuring lyrics by Chris Bush and music by Russell Hepplewhite. The rights to perform these as part of your production are included in the performance fee quoted on this page.
You can preview a selection of the songs here. If you choose to licence A Dream, downloadable files for all of the music will be provided for a small additional fee.
Content guidance: This play contains some strong language and mild references to drinking and drug-taking.
About the author
Chris Bush is an award-winning playwright, lyricist, theatre-maker and an Associate Director at Sheffield Theatres. Past work includes Rock / Paper / Scissors (Sheffield Theatres), Jane Eyre (Stephen Joseph Theatre/New Vic Theatre), Fantastically Great Women Who Changed the World (Kenny Wax, UK tour), Hungry (Paines Plough), Kein Weltuntergang / (Not) The End of the World (Schaubühne, Berlin), Standing at the Sky’s Edge (Sheffield Theatres – Best Theatre: South Bank Sky Arts Awards; Best Musical: UK Theatre Awards), Nine Lessons and Carols: Stories for a Long Winter (Almeida Theatre), Faustus: That Damned Woman (Headlong/Lyric Hammersmith/Birmingham Rep), The Last Noël (Attic Theatre/UK tour), The Assassination of Katie Hopkins (Theatr Clwyd – Best Musical: UK Theatre Awards), Pericles (National Theatre: Olivier), The Changing Room (NT Connections), The Band Plays On, Steel, What We Wished For, A Dream, The Sheffield Mysteries (all Sheffield Theatres), Scenes from the End of the World (Yard/Central School), A Declaration from the People (National Theatre: Dorfman) and Larksong (New Vic, Stoke-on-Trent). Awards include a South Bank Sky Arts Award, two UK Theatre Awards, the Perfect Pitch Award, a Brit Writers’ Award and the Theatre Royal Haymarket Writers’ Award.
About the composer
Russell Hepplewhite studied at Chetham's in Manchester, and then the RCM London as a scholar. He is recognised as a leading music-theatre composer. His ground-breaking operas commissioned by English Touring Opera for young audiences have been widely performed, and won him critical acclaim. The most successful of these operas, Laika The Spacedog, has been performed across Europe including an all new productions by the Opera Nouvel in Fribourg Switzerland; and the Neue Forum Kunst Germany. Other operas include The Price, and Ever Young both for W11 Opera; The Casket Girl for Jubilee Opera, and Moonfleet The Musical for the Salisbury Playhouse in 2018. Russell's many choral works are published by Banks Music Publications, Oxford University Press and Stainer & Bell. With acclaimed author Michael Rosen Russell composed the 2020 set of Friday Afternoons songs commissioned by Snape Maltings. Most recent productions include Climat for Opera Orchestre National Montpellier; and The Crash for the Oldenburgisches Staatstheater Germany.