The Food of Love

In The Food of Love, exquisite orchestral and choral music from stage and screen will bring Shakespeare’s extraordinary words to life, with famous excerpts from his plays and entertaining theatrical anecdotes! This will be an evening to remember, narrated by acting royalty, with musical highlights from the glittering scores of Craig Armstrong (Romeo + Juliet), Stephen Warbeck (Shakespeare in Love), William Walton (Henry V), Nigel Hess (Royal Shakespeare Company productions), Henry Purcell, Roger Quilter and Ralph Vaughan Williams.

We are delighted to announce that Samantha Bond and Sir Derek Jacobi will be our special guest presenters for The Food of Love.*

Samantha Bond’s acclaimed performances have included leading roles in RSC and West End productions of Shakespeare’s Macbeth, A Winter’s Tale, Much Ado About Nothing, Romeo & Juliet and As You like It. The Tony Award nominee is equally well-loved for her high profile television and film credits (including Downtown Abbey and playing Miss Moneypenny in four James Bond films).

One of the world’s best-known actors, double Olivier Award winner Sir Derek Jacobi has played many of Shakespeare’s seminal characters on stage during his illustrious career, including Hamlet, Macbeth, Lear, Prospero and Richard III. His numerous screen appearances range from Murder On The Orient Express to the popular series Last Tango in Halifax.

*Details correct at time of going to press, artists may be subject to change.

The Bard’s most famous speeches are vividly brought to life alongside scandalous backstage anecdotes to create a night to remember with this wonderful repetoire: 

HESS The entry to the Senate from Julius Caesar

WALTON Fanfare from Hamlet

QUILTER Evening in the forest from As You Like It

HESS Christening & Coronation from Henry VIII; The statue from The Winter's Tale; Sigh no more from Much Ado About Nothing; Suite from The Comedy of Errors

WALTON Soliloquy from Hamlet; Suite from Henry V

Interval

HESS Suite from Troilus & Cressida

ARMSTRONG Balcony scene from Romeo & Juliet

HESS Evening hymn from Love's Labour's Lost

PURCELL Overture, Timon of Athens

HESS Overture, Much Ado About Nothing

VAUGHAN WILLIAMS The cloud-capp'd towers from The Tempest

HESS Willow song from Othello

WARBECK The end from Shakespeare in Love

HESS The wind and the rain from Twelfth Night