Dame Judi Dench Throws Support behind Prescot Theatre

Celebrated actress Dame Judi Dench has lent her support to Shakespeare North’s proposed theatre, in an open letter to Liverpool.

The Oscar- and BAFTA-winning British thespian said she particularly supported the project because her husband, the late actor Michael Williams (A Fine Romance, Educating Rita), came from Liverpool.

She won an Academy Award for her performance as Queen Elizabeth I in the 1998 film Shakespeare in Love.

“The Shakespeare North project is important to me because I believe that great Shakespearean performances can change lives,” she wrote, “and because I want to help offer hope, vision and an enhanced educational experience to the children of Knowsley and Liverpool.

“From 2020 everyone in Britain should be able to follow a Shakespeare journey from London to Stratford and then to Knowsley, but only if you join me in supporting this dream.”

Following her becoming a trustee of Shakespeare North, she donated the set from Shakespeare in Love, which includes oak timbers that can be used or displayed in the Prescot Playhouse, to the charity.

Pleading with people to support the new arts complex, Dame Judi said: “I ask you to give whatever you can in the knowledge that 400 years from now the performances you have helped to happen will still be performed in Knowsley. This will be your legacy.”

Work is expected to start on the theatre and college, on Mill Street in Prescot town centre, later in 2017.

Read the full letter at shakespearenorth.org.

Photo: Caroline Bonarde Ucci (licensed for reuse under Creative Commons)

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