Response

His embodiment of figures from portly fun guy Falstaff to twisted creeper Richard III, from a horridly witchy Joan of Arc to a nastily lisping French Dauphin (oooh, that tennis-ball speech! It made my blood boil), is spookily impressive…Mooney’s rendition of two well-known battlefield speeches…will stiffen your sinews and summon up your blood. What better way to leave a Fringe show than with the hair standing up on the back of your neck? –Jessica Bryce Young, Orlando Weekly
For history buffs, it’s a romp through the royal families of Britain. For theater buffs, it’s a chance to hear Shakespeare’s words in plays not often performed.– Matthew J. Palm, Orlando Sentinel Theater Critic
His speeches are delivered with a fury that will rally the troops, and I think the politics of Shakespeare’s are beginning to invade my 20th century skull. — Carl F Gauze, Archikulture Digest

About the Show

In yet another attempt to perform the impossible, Timothy Mooney, Author-Performer-Producer of Moliere than Thou, Lot o’ Shakespeare and The Greatest Speech of All Time, has fit all ten of Shakespeare’s Histories into an epic one-man performance (and book), capturing the history of England, from 1066 to 1533 into a single hour!

For thirteen years Tim Mooney has travelled the United States, bringing an astonishingly entertaining lexicon of Shakespeare and Moliere to diverse audiences. Mooney has appeared at over 40 Fringe Festivals. In 2011, Mooney memorized one monologue from every Shakespeare play, performed “Bingo style” as Lot o’ Shakespeare. Mooney is doubling down with Shakespeare’s Histories; Ten Epic Plays at a Breakneck Pace!

Combining the most brilliant speeches of Shakespeare’s most challenging plays into a single hour-long performance, Shakespeare’s Histories reveals in a single “swell foop” the epic sweep of Shakespeare’s historical vision. Mooney notes, “It’s amazing when you realize that all of these famous lines, words that live in our everyday language, had their origins in these obscure plays. Almost every speech rings that echoing bell of familiarity at the same time that it informs you of exactly why that very speech was an important and profound contribution to human consciousness. And, as a bonus, we realize that these very hard-to-follow plays tell one complete, much easier-to-grasp story when performed in chronological order.”

Reviews of Mooney’s Shakespeare performances have described him as “Flat out riveting.” (Sultana Ali; DailyCity). “Like a house afire.” (Elizabeth Maupin; WordPress.com); “His St. Crispin’s Day speech made me want to take up arms with him.” (Matthew Palm; Orlando Sentinel). And at the Minnesota Fringe, audiences raved that Mooney “Makes the language, the stories, alive in a rare way,” “A one-man dynamo!”

As a prelude to these performances, Mooney has already published Shakespeare’s Histories as a book, complete with full-color illustrations, graphs and maps, which provides, parallel to the dialogues, all of the contextual information that makes sense of the familial relationships and the issues of royal succession that dominated these dramas. A series of family trees follows the English monarchy from William the Conqueror to Queen Elizabeth I, providing ready reference each time one of the English lords attempts to “jump the queue” leading the nation to dissent, destruction and death.