Twelfth Night, Julius Caesar, A Midsummer Night's Dream, Macbeth, and The Tempest... in a way you've never seen them before. Away from the rest of their plays, Malvolio, Cinna, Peaseblossom, Banquo, and Caliban tell their tales, each in a solo-show written for younger audiences, by acclaimed playwright Tim Crouch. No longer burdened by iambic pentameter, these five can finally speak their truth... Fusing Shakespeare with meta-theatre, multimedia, creative tasks, and philosophical playfulness, Crouch reimagines these secondary Shakespearean characters in a way that is accessible and engaging to young audiences. Featuring an introduction from Crouch that explains the origin of the five plays and their performance processes, the I, Shakespeare collection provides a fresh perspective on some of theatre's most well-known stories, finding the parallels between the Bard's time and present day.
Tim Crouch Book order




- 2023
- 2023
When I say sleep, you're free again. A man loses his daughter to a car accident. Nothing now is what it seems. It's like he's in a play - but he doesn't know the words or the moves. Tim Crouch's critically acclaimed play playfully pushes the limits of theatre: a two-hander, where one of the actors walk on stage having neither seen nor read a word of the play they're in... until they're in it. Shockingly moving, An Oak Tree questions how we perform ... and whether we know our lines. This edition was published to coincide with the runs at Avignon Festival, France, in July 2023, and the Edinburgh Festival Fringe, in August 2023.
- 2023
Co-commissioned by Wonder Fools and the Traverse Theatre these six plays offer a variety of stories, styles and forms for ages 10 to 25.
- 2022
Truth's a Dog Must to Kennel
- 48 pages
- 2 hours of reading
And that's the moment when I leave. The moment when the jokes fail us. When I fail. I fail. This precise moment here, look, see with your ears. The Fool leaves King Lear before the blinding. Before the killing starts. Before the ice-creams in the interval. In his new solo work, playwright Tim Crouch draws on ideas of virtual reality to send the Fool back to the future of the play that he left. Back to a world without moral leadership or integrity; a world where wealth covers vice; where the poor are dehumanised; where the jokes fall flat; where live art has become the privilege of the few. Truth's a Dog Must to Kennel is a daringly unaccommodating piece of theatre that switches between scathingly funny stand-up and an audacious act of collective imagining. King Lear meets stand-up meets the metaverse. Crouch's previous celebrated works include An Oak Tree, The Author, Adler & Gibb, Total Immediate Collective Imminent Terrestrial Salvation, and Beginners. This edition was published to coincide with the production at The Royal Lyceum Theatre Edinburgh in August 2022.