Hotel Elsinore
Denmark. 2am. A hotel room. Three weary travellers, an unexpected will, and a production of Hamlet to rehearse before morning. After creating the wildly successful Nearly Lear, which has toured internationally to audience and critical acclaim, award-winning actor Susanna Hamnett joins forces with her son and daughter to bring her unique vision to another of Shakespeare’s masterpieces.
Project
Hotel Elsinore
Our Project
Plant[UnLtd] is the exciting new production company bringing together the talents and diverse multigenerational experiences of our real-life artist family. We are award-winning actor Susanna Hamnett (whose wildly successful play Nearly Lear has performed to international audience and critical acclaim, including on Broadway and at the Sydney Opera House), her actor/writer son Joshua MacGregor (whose play, The Teeth of Haros, was called 'One of the best-written theatre scripts I have seen during my time at the Fringe' by the British Theatre Guide), and her daughter, visual artist/dancer Lily MacGregor.
Hotel Elsinore is the title of our first project together, a new play set to premiere at this year’s Edinburgh Fringe Festival. Created during lockdown, it is a play about families and the cathartic and healing power of art, set in the liminal and claustrophobic confines of a hotel room where a bereaved family is thrust into facing their unresolved issues. With Shakespeare’s Hamlet as the pivot around which the family’s story revolves and evolves, the play is by turns absurd, tragic, funny, and poignant.
This crowdfunding campaign is not only about performing for a week at the biggest theatre festival in the world, it is also the first important step in launching a play that we believe has a long and successful touring life ahead. It is also about building the foundation of a unique new company dedicated to making work that can evolve and grow into the future, that seeks to foster connection and conversation with audiences of all ages and backgrounds. We are turning to you, our friends, friends of friends, lovers of theatre and new work, for your support.
What We Need
We are looking to raise £7000 to cover our costs. These include production costs - one time investments which will set this show up for all future productions (ie set design, props, costumes, sound/lighting design etc) - and the not-insubstantial expenses of mounting a show at the Fringe for a week. These include such things as our venue hire, accommodation, van hire and petrol, insurance, and advertising and marketing.
This Is How We’d Like To Express Our Thanks
£10 - Our boundless gratitude, and a thank you on the Plant[UnLtd] social media pages and at the end of the video recording of our Fringe performance.
£25 - Our boundless gratitude, and a thank you (as above), and access to a taped Fringe performance of Hotel Elsinore which will be available for a limited time on Vimeo sometime in September.
£50 - Our boundless gratitude, and a thank you (as above), access to the taped performance (as above), and a personalised, signed A4 poster from the cast.
£100 - Our boundless gratitude, and a thank you (as above), access to a taped performance (as above), and a personalised, signed A3 poster from the cast.
£500 - Our boundless gratitude, and a thank you (as above), access to a taped performance (as above), a signed A3 poster from the cast (as above), and a signed, bound copy of the script.
£1000 - Our boundless gratitude, and a thank you (as above), access to a taped performance (as above), a signed A3 poster from the cast (as above), a signed, bound copy of the script (as above), and a one of a kind Hotel Elsinore t-shirt specially designed by renowned British artist Tony Kenyon, printed by I Dress Myself on an organic cotton Stanley/Stella shirt with water-based inks to make it 100% environmentally-friendly.
If our fundraising goal is not met in full, the production will still go ahead and our gratitude will be no less boundless to all those who have contributed and supported us. We will also make sure to send the small tokens of thanks that we have promised. We will also, however, be very deeply in debt on our credit cards!
Other Ways You Can Help
While we are boundlessly grateful to everyone who can support us monetarily, we extend that gratitude to anyone who can offer support by alternate means (crossed fingers, good wishes, offerings to the theatre gods etc). Word of mouth is great, as is sharing our campaign on all your social media platforms! If you know anyone who can contribute financially or who is going to be at the Fringe this year, please do tell them about us. We believe that this will be a beautiful show.