‘Oddsocks Productions’, one of the leading theatre companies in the UK, will be bringing their show to Tewkesbury tomorrow as they perform one of William Shakespeare’s most famous plays.

The cast members from the long-running production company will be performing ‘The Tempest’ at Victoria Gardens in the centre of Tewkesbury but it won’t be a performance that’s in keeping with most people’s idea of Shakespeare’s play.

“We’ll be performing ‘The Tempest’ but instead of following the original storyline our play is set in space,” said Elli Mackenzie, one of the founders of the acclaimed theatre group. She continued: “We’re a company that is known for our takes on Shakespeare, we use the original text but for our performance of ‘The Tempest’ there’s lots of references to popular sci-fi films like ‘Star Trek’ and ‘Star Wars’.

"It’s a fantastically comedic and touching show, we’re really looking forward to performing it on Saturday in Tewkesbury. We’ve six cast members that play the various roles, they’re excellent musicians, singers and actors.”

‘Oddsocks Productions’ will be celebrating their 30th anniversary next year, which is some achievement considering they don’t receive a penny of public funding. So what does Elli put their longevity down to?

“Pure hard work and passion. To survive in an industry like this one for almost 30 years is an achievement we’re very proud of. We’re lucky that we started out at a time when lots of towns and even villages had performance venues that were well supported. Things have changed a lot since we began but we’ve managed to make a success of things thankfully,” she said.

Elli formed ‘Oddsocks Promotions’ back in 1989 alongside her husband Andy Barrow. By 1993, demand for their style of theatre was so great that the pair embarked upon their first full scale summer theatre tour ‘The Taming of the Shrew’. That show was so successful that a second theatre production toured the following summer, followed by a winter theatre tour. Since then, ‘Oddsocks Productions’ has toured theatre twice a year to England, Wales, the Channel Islands and often to the Middle East.

Elli explained: “We were able to travel to the Middle East just before we had our children. We both left drama school and went straight into work so didn’t do what a lot of our friends did and take a gap year and travel around the world. An opportunity arose to tour Jordan which was a real adventure. In addition to that we visited Syria and performed in places like Aleppo and Damascus. It’s very sad to think what those great cities have been reduced to as a result of the war out there.

“I’m very lucky in that I love my job. I trained to be an actor and I’m able to get on stage and work alongside so many talented colleagues, it’s a real thrill. I find it incredibly satisfying and humbling when we receive a standing ovation, that’s probably my favourite part of the job. It’s very hard work, it takes us five hours to set up the stage and two hours to pack everything up when we’ve finished so it’s always an amazing feeling when people go out of their way to thank us.”