VENUS AND ADONIS

Shakespeare wrote Venus and Adonis while London’s theatres were closed during the Plague epidemic of 1593. It was his first published work and the best-seller of its day, yet it still remains one of his more neglected pieces.

Though the poem is often seen as a piece of frivolous erotica, a closer inspection of the work will reveal a darker world that explores the dynamics of mortality, love, lust and sexual power.

Venus and Adonis has two vivid characters and a gripping story. It is a poem written by a dramatist and it begs to be performed. Christopher Hunter has retained Shakespeare’s text, set the poem in our modern world and, with the use of music and sound, he has turned the poem into a one-man play.

Christopher Hunter’s Venus and Adonis has played about 40 performances. Since it first performed at the Edinburgh Festival in 2017, it has played at London’s Rose Theatre on Bankside, The Willow Globe in Wales and at the Garrick Club in London.