The Festival Players Theatre Company

All-male touring theatre group takes a pop at Princess Beatrice with natty wedding headgear scene!

An acclaimed all-male theatre troupe touring the UK in The Taming of the Shrew is taking a good-natured pop at Princess Beatrice.

The Gloucestershire-based Festival Players, already raising eyebrows with their single sex version of Shakespeare's brilliant comedy, with two men playing women, are causing further uproar with their topical nod to the Princess's Royal Wedding fascinator.

The eye-catching Philip Treacy creation caused fashion fallout at the wedding of Prince William and Kate Middleton, though the Princess had the last laugh when she sold the fascinator on eBay for over £80,000, raising funds for UNICEF and Children in Crisis.

Now, in the triple wedding scene in the Players' production, Bristol-born actor Paul Hampton, who plays flamboyant fortune hunter - and Shrew tamer - Petruchio, appears with a replica fascinator to the mirth of audiences up and down the country.

Director Michael Dyer (left) , former artistic director of Cornwall's famous open air Minack Theatre, says: "I wanted to do something topical to tie the play's wedding in with the recent Royal Wedding - and possibly the biggest story of the Royal day was that hat!"

The inimitable Players, who aim to make Shakespeare accessible to all, are travelling the length and breadth of the UK with their mammoth 58-date UK tour. The shows will be played out at an increasingly varied number of locations from Scottish castles to English village greens, famous Welsh gardens to amphitheatres and London cafes. 

The cast is transporting audiences to the colourful Italian world of sunny Padua with a fun-packed, energetic, and brilliantly inventive production centred on Shakespeare's feisty female creation, Katharina - with her scolding tongue and fiery temper! (a role played by the late Elizabeth Taylor in the 1965 Franco Zefferelli film) and the inspiration for Cole Porter's famous musical Kiss Me Kate.

Deep voiced London-based actor Scott Smith takes on the challenge of the wilful, headstrong Kate while Kate's more amiable sister Bianca is  played by Cornwall-born, Hertfordshire-based actor Adam Trembath.

They lead the action in this comedy of farcical impediments, impersonation, and impassioned love - a lively "Battle of the Sexes" played out by just seven quick-changing actors.

Worcestershire-based Dyer teaches Shakespeare performance at The University of Wales Trinity St David in Carmarthen where he has recently staged an acclaimed all-female version of The Taming of the Shrew with his student cast, so single gender productions are becoming his trademark. 

Many of the "Shrew" shows will raise funds for local, national and international charities from Help for Heroes to Hope and Homes for Children.

The Players' tour continues in England, Scotland and Wales until August Bank Holiday weekend.

More information at http://www.thefestivalplayers.co.uk/ and follow the Players here: www.twitter.com/festivalplay