Harriet Walter and Alex Jennings

to read the dazzling new biography

by Lucy Hughes-Hallett

SHAKE Festival is delighted to announce a rehearsed reading of The Scapegoat, the glittering life of the Duke of Buckingham by Lucy Hughes-Hallett, published last month to rave reviews.

The brilliant cast of readers is made up of Alex Jennings and Harriet Walter along with newcomer Xander Ridge. Abridged by Hughes-Hallett herself and focusing on, ‘the flight to Spain’, in the central chapters, the reading is directed by Jenny Hall, artistic director of SHAKE Festival in Suffolk.

The reading takes place on January 22nd 2025 for one night only at The Tabernacle in London W11. The running time is one and a half hours with a fifteen-minute interval and tickets go on sale November 1st on Ticketsource.co.uk

“Working with these two extraordinary actors on this magnificent material is like a dream come true,” said Jenny Hall. “I’m also delighted to introduce a terrific young actor from Suffolk, Xander Ridge, as our third reader.”

“This fabulous biography is long overdue” The Guardian.

“Like its subject, this biography is a prodigy, an almost bewilderingly skilful portrait of James I’s reign in all its glittering strangeness.” The Spectator

SHAKE was founded by Hall in 2021 as a Community Interest Company. They produced livestreamed readings of Shakespeare during the pandemic, including an acclaimed Midsummer Night’s Dream starring Dan Stevens and Rebecca Hall, and The Tempest starring Geraldine James as Prospero. SHAKE also produces weekend festivals of Shakespeare working with local schoolchildren and leading Shakespeareans, and has a flourishing programme of community outreach.

Earlier this year Jenny Hall directed a reading of the George Ewart Evans’ classic of Suffolk agricultural life, The Horse in The Furrow, at the Saxmundham Arts Festival. In 2025 the company will embark on a new stage adaptation of Ronald Blythe’s Akenfield, which her father made into a film in 1974.

Harriet Walter’s new book She Speaks was published this month, offering “brilliant alternative insights” (The Guardian) on familiar Shakespearean stories, and she is soon to appear on Channel 4 as Margaret Thatcher in Brian and Margaret with Steve Coogan. Alex Jennings can be seen in Steve McQueen’s Blitz, with Saoirse Ronan and Elliott Heffernan, streaming on Apple TV + from 1st November.