What Fools These Mortals Be is an inventive retelling of Shakespeare’s A Midsummer Night’s Dream performed as a series of tableau vivantes (living pictures) by a group of 14 formerly incarcerated women.
The project is a collaboration between The Circle Project and Vancouver artist Adad Hannah.
Upcoming Shows
April 20 -September 9, 2024
Audain Art Museum, “Otherwise Disregarded”, Whistler, B.C.
July 6 – September 2, 2023
Pumphouse Museum, “The Art of Survival/A Prison for Women Memorial Collective Exhibition”, Kingston, Ontario
May – September 2023
Canadian Embassy, Tokyo, Japan
January 25 – February 25, 2023
Artspace Gallery, 378 Aylmer St. Peterborough, Ontario K9H 3V8.
Curated by Amy Siegal for the Reframe Film Festival.
October 20 – 23, 2022
Isabel Bader Centre for the Performing Arts, Queen’s University
September 15 – 20, 2022
Simon Fraser University Goldcorp Centre for the Arts, Feil and Milton Wong Experimental Theatre, 149 West Hastings, Vancouver.
To book the show please contact:
They were joined by six formerly incarcerated women who had worked with The Circle Project since 2019.
Nine of the women participants were recently released from federal prison and living in transition houses in the Vancouver region.
The group took part in a series of studio workshops exploring what form the project could take.
After several weeks Jess Hanley suggested staging Shakespeare’s A Midsummer Night’s Dream.
Working with a professional crew, the women spent three weeks constructing sets, props, and costumes to be used in the production.
We could all instantly see the potential of the idea and the group quickly coalesced around designing and planning its execution.
The resulting silent tableaux vivants were shot on the final weekend of the month.
They then moved in front of the camera, assuming all the characters in Shakespeare’s play.
What Fools These Mortals Be (The Making Of)