Why Will? The Seven Ages of Shakespeare Edition:
In an effort to answer why Bowler Crab is a Shakespeare only company, Stephen performs twenty speeches and presents his case based on his 13-year career, having directed 36 Shakespeare productions to date. Presented in two 60-minute acts, Stephen takes on characters from Shakespeare’s finest works: from Hamlet to Benedick, Romeo to Bottom, and Caesar to Henry V.
Tragedy and comedy lace this charismatic and personal performance as Stephen fights, feasts, frights, fawns, flourishes, fathoms and falls about laughing in every effort to share his passion for Shakespeare.
One actor, one bard and one question: ”Why Will?”. This one-man show explores the importance of some of Shakespeare’s most famous scenes to convey the impact his works have had on our everyday lives. Jumping from character to character, play to play, Stephen John utilises ‘The Seven Ages of Man’ speech to its utmost by looking at The Bard’s life and works in seven stages.
Having first toured the show in 2021, Bowler Crab return to the title by popular demand with a 2026 version, redesigned to explore new reflections on the texts chosen. Having also presented sister shows “Shakespeare & Comedy” in 2022 and “Shakespeare & Christmas” in 2025, show creator and performer, Stephen had this to say on the new 2026 show:
"This show is a cleaner re-visitation with more Shakespeare speeches than ever before. When I designed 'Why Will?' in 2021, I had a show structure that followed two distinct paths; one following Shakespeare’s career in seven stages and the other answering questions our fans had sent in and presenting scenes that complimented the answers. Because it was our first show after the pandemic, I wanted to encourage communication amongst our playgoers and had asked our fans and subscribers to message us questions about Shakespeare to punctuate the show with communication. The issue was that these two main script structure paths combined resulted in the first rehearsal being over four hours long and I quickly realised that I needed to choose only one structure for a more comfortable running time. In 2021, I chose the “question style” and now in 2026, I’ve redesigned the show back to the former structure as the ‘The Seven Ages of Shakespeare Edition’. This show follows The Bard’s adapting writing style as his life and the world around him changed. Whether you’re new to Shakespeare or know lots, this show presents ‘a greatest hits’ of his works whilst exploring the answer behind his popularity as the most performed playwright in history."
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'Why Will? The Seven Ages of Shakespeare' is on tour March to April 2026:
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