"A playful imagining of what happens when William Shakespeare is visited by his Muse."

A Muse’s Will by Chris Hudson is a playful imagining of what happens when William Shakespeare is visited by his Muse. By turns fiery and flirtatious, inspiring and infuriating, Will’s Muse helps him as he works on As You Like It, creating, in Rosalind, his greatest female character. Along the way, they talk of love, writing, the theatre and Will’s life, as they ‘ascend the brightest heaven of invention’ together!

Performed at the Mumford Theatre, Cambridge, in May 2012. Photos (up, left): Fran Burgoyne in her prize-winning role as The Muse, and Tony Dutton as William Shakespeare in Chris Hudson's play A Muse's Will.

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Fran Burgoyne's performance as the Muse was hailed with praise by the adjudicators of the festival afterwards:
     'She was the epitome of her description of women - 'witty and wily...maddening yet passionate and tender...strong and not lacking in resource.' [...] You made instant sense of the set and moves were well-motivated and pretty to look at. You were provocative, spirited and teasing and the audience [...] warmed to you very quickly indeed. You [...] give much back to your fellow actor in terms of responses and reactions. [...] we enjoyed your intelligent interpretation of this character ... this was a charming, engaging performance. Well done!'

Cambridge Drama Festival adjudicator, Jan Palmer-Sayer, complimented Tony Dutton's performance as Will in A Muse's Will especially on his eloquence: 'You have a most pleasing voice [...] a lovely range of emphasis that makes utter sense of the lines. The changes in mood were well-signalled and you rose to anger well, responding intelligently to the provocative Muse. You communicated the myriad offstage relationships well and we certainly understood your feelings for your contemporary writers and the regrets about your marriage in Stratford.'

Adjudicators also praised the well-cast actors for the 'spark' that could be sensed between them on stage: 
'Both actors performed extremely well as a duo, playing off each other well and establishing an onstage rapport which was well reflected in excellent cue-bite, reactions and responses. Well done!'

William Shakespeare – Author Chris Hudson and Fran Burgoyne holding the Best Actress award for A Muse's Will at the Cambridge Drama Festival, 2012. A great achievement for both!

Shakespeare and his Muse after their last performance of 'A Muse's Will' at the Mumford Theatre in Cambridge.

The script was runner-up for the award of best new play: 'The writing is good and tight and the speeches from the plays are well-integrated ... This was a witty and stimulating new play with an original twist on the nature of Shakespeare's inspiration.'

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