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Mick Zijdel
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The Bard Unplugged

Join us for a one night only night of acoustic music featuring only the finest lyrics the bard has to offer, set to original music

Mick playing guitar to a row of toy monkeys propped against a tree, Bella listening

Technologies

Guitar

Tags

Theatre Music

The Edinburgh University Shakespeare Company presents “An infinite monkey attempts to write the complete works of Shakespeare: a variety show” who also presents:

The Bard Unplugged

“If music be the food of love, play on.” - Twelfth Night Act 1, Scene 1

Mick playing acoustic guitar leaning against a tree in the Meadows while Bella sits in the grass below

Music composed and performed on guitar by Mick Zijdel (“Hilariously Clever”, ★★★★★ - The Student), sung by Bella Burgess (“Marvellous singing voice, resonates with emotion” ★★★★ - the Broad Online).

Featuring songs from The Tempest, Cymbeline, Henry VIII, Twelfth Night, As You Like It, Love’s Labour’s Lost, and other original songs by Mick Zijdel.

Book tickets on the Fringe website

This show is only performed on 15 August. Please make sure you book your tickets for this date.

A toy orangutan sitting at a typewriter in the grass, a blank sheet of paper in the roller

About The Show

“The Bard Unplugged” started three years ago, when I put the songs in The Tempest to music for a performance at the Bedlam Theatre. I still absolutely love the music I wrote for that, and I am glad we get to play it again. When James, the monkey-in-chief, first mentioned this Shakespeare variety show, I thought it would be an excellent opportunity to write some more songs based on the bard’s lyrics. I was mostly right.

Despite having worked on a couple of Shakespeare productions, I’ve always disliked Shakespeare. It’s dense, hard to get through, and has many jokes that don’t make sense to a modern audience. Working on this project has not changed that opinion. It was a real challenge to work with Shakespeare’s lyrics, especially since there’s only so much iambic pentameter a man can take, but a few in particular made the struggle worth it. Shakespeare’s words managed to elicit chord progressions and riffs from me that modern lyrics couldn’t have. Rehearsing the songs with Bella and properly hearing them come to life was always a delight.

I hope you enjoy these songs of love, death, joy, and many birds and trees.

Mick

Black and white portrait of Bella and Mick in lovely patterned shirts, imitating the Bookends album cover

Credits

Bella Burgess: Vocals
Mick Zijdel: Guitar and Composer
Audrey Nicholls: Lyrics for “Somewhere Out There”
Violet Studdert-Kennedy: Photographer

and the Infinite Monkey team:
James Harvey: Monkey-in-Chief
Alex Kerr: Technical Manager
Isla Duffy: Production Manager
Lou Limpenny: Producer
Nina Ceretti: Producer

Gallery

Mick playing guitar between while Bella and the monkey face off wielding bananasMick playing guitar between while Bella and the monkey face off wielding bananasMick, with a toy orangutan perched on one shoulder, squaring off across the grass against Bella, who has a guitar raised overheadMick and Bella running across the Meadows under a blue sky, guitar in handMick and Bella standing back to back, Bella singing into a bananaBella holding the monkey's skull like in Hamlet