Created by – Richard Higgins, Matt Kelly & Declan Greene
Director – Declan Greene
Designer – Renee Mulder
Lighting Design – Verity Hampson
Composer & Sound Designer – Jed Palmer
Originally commissioned & first produced at Wharf 1 Theatre by Sydney Theatre Company
Hilarious family fun
Kidult superstars The Listies are back with their side-splittingly clever badaptation of Shakespeare’s classic, made just for kids.
A very cheeky, very clever, utterly irreverent riff on Hamlet – made especially for children. The Listies, maestros of children’s entertainment, have pulled apart Shakespeare’s classic and glued it back together with hilarious costumes, loads of silliness and plenty of interactivity.
Hamlet is already full of things kids love in a good story: ghosts, castles, sword fights, bodily fluids and spooky stuff. Add to the mix some supersonic gags and expertly timed stage magic and you have a brilliantly disguised Shakespearean tragedy for everyone aged five and over.
And that’s not all… expect bonus pillow fights, pirates, ninjas, ninja pirates, aliens, ninja pirate aliens, zombies and a bunch of other hilarious stuff as The Listies take kids and their adults on a fun-filled hour of theatre. The only thing we can be sure of is that everyone dies at the end – including the audience!
Touring in 2021
Scroll down for all tour dates and locations
Artform
Children, Family, Comedy
Audience
Recommended for ages 5+
Duration
60 minutes
Minimum Stage
TBA
Previous Seasons
Sydney Theatre Company, Wharf 1 Theatre (2016)
Sydney Theatre Company, Seymour Centre (2018)
Multi-venue NSW Tour (2018)
What people are saying
“If you want your kids to have fun at the theatre and fall for all its magic, get them to a Listies show as soon as possible… Nobody else makes Shakespeare this fun.” ★★★★ Daily Review
“this is Hamlet with everything you could have wanted and more, and it’s the perfect way to introduce a young person to the magic and chaos of theatre, as well as to the work of Shakespeare.” ★★★★ Arts Hub
“One of the funniest introductions to Shakespeare imaginable.” ★★★★ Sunday Telegraph
“In short, it’s hilarious.” Sydney Morning Herald
“Funny, entertaining and full of energy and imagination.” Stage Whispers
TOUR DATES
4 – 22 January , 2021
Sydney Opera House
23 – 24 April
Theatre Royal, Hobart
22 – 23 June
Glasshouse, Port Macquarie
25 – 26 June
The Art House Wyong
29 – 30 June
The Joan, Penrith
2 July
Dubbo Regional Theatre
6 – 7 July
The Q, Queanbeyan
10 July
Shoalhaven Entertainment Centre
13 September
Logan Entertainment Centre
6 – 9 October
UWA Dolphin Theatre, Perth
AWARDS
- 2019 Won Edinburgh Fringe Primary Times Choice Award
- 2016 Nominated Best Children’s Show Sydney Critics Award
- 2016 Won The HarperCollins Best Designed Children’s Fiction Book
- 2015 Nominated Best Ensemble Green Room Awards
- 2013 Won Best Production for Children, Sydney Theatre Awards
- 2010 Nominated Best Show, “The Barry” Melbourne Comedy Festival
- 2010 Nominated Best Emerging Comedians Adelaide Fringe
- 2009 Won Golden Gibbo Award, Melbourne International Comedy Festival
AUDIENCES
The Listies have become renowned for their ability to engage young people and families in their work, and are one of the leading producers of work for the Kidult market(kids with adults). This will appeal to families with children aged 5+ who are looking for ways to introduce theatre, and theatrical experiences, into their child’s entertainment sphere.
Adult fans of Shakespeare with children will delight in seeing their child’s first experience of the bard, even at it’s silliest.
Community Engagement
The Listies have a strong social media presence & are happy to work with venues to create extra shareable content made for your community.
Existing 3500+ Australia-wide mailing list.
Matt & Rich are always available for interviews, Q and A’s, VIP events.
Previously venues have used dress up boxes, themed events and pyjama parties to embrace the fun and play that a kid’s show can bring.
Included are digital assets for venues to run a colouring-in competition as well as promotional copies of their published books for giveaways (Ickypedia, Ickyfoodia). The Listies will also make their three CD’s available for sale along with their books in the foyer post-show.
ABOUT THE LISTIES
The Listies are Richard Higgins and Matthew Kelly, a comedy double act who are serious about being silly. They formed during the latest Ice Age (2008) to perform absurdist comedy to elderly people (i.e. 18+) but switched to full time kids comedy in 2011, and finding it to be a wondrous and rewarding sphere full of joy, never looked back (plus the hours are heaps better).
To date, they have claimed to have written nineish award-winning & critically acclaimed live shows, collaborated with most major theatre companies and festivals in Australia, toured 3 continents, recorded three albums, produced two seasons of a television series with the ABC, and published two books with Penguin – and they have 4 books on the way.
Though we only have their word for it.
You can catch the Listies on their ABC Series ’The Listies Work For Peanuts’ on iView, their music video ‘Wash Your Hands’ (with Zoe Coombs Marr and muso RyanRitchie) on YouTube, and occasionally in the background of outside weather broadcasts. In 2019 they performed over 120 shows to tens of thousands of people all over Australia. Nearly all of them stayed awake and only some of them vomited. Recently, in what may have been an administrative error, they won the Edinburgh Festival’s ‘Primary Times award for Best Production for Children’.