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AN AWARD-WINNING EVENT
In 2024 the festival won one of the inaugural Bucks Spark Awards, presented by Buckinghamshire Culture.
Bucks Culture have said that "the awards have been created to showcase and celebrate arts, heritage and cultural achievements delivered by fantastic, hard-working organisations and voluntary groups within the county."
The Buckinghamshire Shakespeare Festival won 'Best Cultural Event', with other categories including 'Best Cultural Collaboration' and 'Best Cultural Exhibition'.
Read more about the award here.
2026 Festival
"O brave new world..."
The 2026 festival is set to be our biggest yet, running for an epic six weeks across July and August! We've a whole programme of activities planned:
- 'A Midsummer Night's Dream'; a flagship production performed exclsively at Queens Park Arts Centre for one week only.
- 'Slapstick Shakespeare - Twelfth Night'; a touring production offering a joyfully silly new take on this classic comedy.
- 'Sixty-minute Shakespeare - The Tempest'; a touring adaptation for younger audiences and those with an aversion to Shakespeare!
- 'Venus & Adonis'; a new recording of the epic poem, as part of our 'Sounds and Sweet Airs' project.
- 'Sonnets in the Vale'; short films of some of the bard's best-loved sonnets, shot at venues across Buckinghamshire
- 'Food of Love'; an album of songs taken from Shakespeare's plays, including settings from previous Unbound productions.
More details to be announced soon!
2025 Festival - 'MaCBETH' & 'AS YOU LIKE IT'
2024 Festival - 'RICHARD II'
2023 Festival - 'Much Ado About Nothing'
2022 Festival - 'HAMLET'
THE ROAD TO THE FESTIVAL...
2016
2016
2016
Unbound's first foray into the Bard's work coincided with the 400th anniversary of Shakesepare's death, with a celebration of his work covering solilopquies, scenes, soonets and songs at Queens Park Arts Centre
2017
2016
2016
The first full production was 'Macbeth', which ran for four performances at QPAC's Limelight Theatre, and starred Alistair Sanderson and Joanne Rothery as Lord and Lady Macbeth.
2018
2016
2018
Our production of 'Twelfth Night' was the first to venture out and about, with a performance at the Discover Bucks Museum, and an abridged performance for Aylesbury Town Council's St George's Day event.
2019
2016
2018
Next came an ambitious new adaptation of 'Antony & Cleopatra', which visited QPAC, the Discover Bucks Museum, St Mary's Church, and the King's Head pub in Aylesbury.
2020
2020
2020
With stage work placed on hold during the coronavirus pandemic, we adapted our stage projects into films - 'As You Skype It', and 'A Mid-Zoom-er Night's Dream.' - and also presented 'A Sonnet A Day' as part of our online programme.
2021
2020
2020
The pandemic once again curtailed our stage plans for Shakespeare, and so we focused our efforts on kick-starting our 'Sounds & Sweet Airs' project - an ambitious mission to bring the Bard's Complete Works to audio.
2022
2020
2022
As well as 'Sounds & Sweet Airs' arriving with two new audio series, the Buckinghamshire Shakespeare Festival officially launched, as the tour extended across the county for the first time.