Shakespeare has been performed in many different ways since the Bard first penned some of the greatest works in the English language.

But in the hands of Sh!t-faced Shakespeare, these works are turned on their head with one of the actors genuinely performing while drunk each night.

Cast of Sh!tfaced Shakespeare’s A Midsummer Night’s Dream

The show, which began life touring music festivals some 14 years ago, has become a massive hit with a regular residency in London’s West End. Next week it comes to Blackburn’s Empire Theatre for the first time - the only North West show on a 32-date UK tour.

The company will be performing A Midsummer Night’s Dream, which as anyone who has seen it before is already one of the more surreal Shakespeare plays. Throw in a drunk cast member and who know what might happen.

“I think there is some scepticism about what we do,” said Stacey Norris, the show’s director who is also one of the performers. “But that’s something we love to play with. It’s like if you watch a magic trick you want to know how it’s done. But we are not a magic trick; we are real actors performing Shakespeare’s A Midsummer Night’s Dream. It’s just that one of us is drunk.

“The drinking acts as a vehicle for chaos. We could do an improvised show where one of the cast pretends to be drunk or where we throw the original script out of the window but that wouldn’t work.

“The drunk actor on the night can do just what they want. They have carte blanche to change the show in any way the feel like; to mess with the rest of the actors. And it’s up to the rest of us to keep the show on track as much as possible.”

The initial challenge for the audience is to work out which of the cast members has been drinking.

Stacey Norris (Picture: Ruth Crafer)

“It’s not usually that difficult,” laughed Stacey.”

As alcohol plays a key role in the production, the welfare of the cast is very much front and centre.

“We have a rotating cast of 10 playing six parts plus a narrator,” said Stacey. “The actor who will be getting drunk changes for each show and you’re only likely to do that role once every couple of weeks or so.

“If a show starts at 7.30, we’ll all get to the theatre around 3.30 and spend four hours with the actor slowly drinking. Everyone watches that person very carefully and their drinks are made for them. If they need to slow down or even stop drinking then we’ll tell them

“No-one want to see someone paralytic on stage. We are all super close and you have to be doing this show. You have to trust the people around you. We will allow you to be a fool but within the realms of what you would find acceptable the next day.

“You want the actor to have a bit of a buzz as it allows them to relax and play a bit more. For the audience there’s that element of jeopardy, they don’t know what that character might do next - and to be honest neither do we.”

A lot of care also goes into first recruiting and then preparing new cast members.

“It is scary when new people get involved,” said Stacey. “You have to learn what their tolerance is to alcohol as they will be on stage drunk in front of maybe more than 1,000 people. That’s a very different experience to being drunk at a party with friends. So we really do our best to get to know people before we hire them and ease them in gently.”

While the drunk actor is a loose cannon, the remainder of the cast try to stay true to the play.

Cast of Sh!tfaced Shakespeare’s A Midsummer Night’s Dream

“The sober performers stay within Shakespeare’s language and his world as much as possible,” said Stacey. “What’s interesting is that the drunk actor often brings in a modern viewpoint.

“It’s fun to watch the cast trying to either pull it back to the script or go with what the drunk character might have come out with and still make it work within the world of the play.

“I have been part of the shows for 12 or 13 years and it never gets boring; you never know what is going to come out or going to happen. It’s a great challenge for the sober actors.”

And for anyone fearing the whole thing could get totally out of hand, the narrator is on hand to act as the voice of reason and to steer the production back into safe waters.

For some purists, the idea of having a drunk actor on stage deliberately trying to sabotage the play is almost seen as sacrilege and Stacey admits that the company has had its critics.

“We actually relish that,” she said. “We’ve had one star reviews from people who hated us and we’ve put that one star on the posters. You can stick your nose up at us but what we are doing is introducing people to Shakespeare who wouldn’t usually to see a Shakespeare play. We are having fun; it’s entertainment. Yes, there is a gimmick involved but that’s the vehicle for the rest of what takes place.

“I’ve been asked if Shakespeare would be turning in his grave if he knew what we were doing but you know what? I think he’d love it.

“Shakespeare was not meant to be read it was meant to be performed. If you keep it as this thing only for studious middle classes or whatever and it’s seen as sacred, the majority of people won’t get to access and experience it.”

What critics often miss is that the company is celebrating the work of Shakespeare.

“We’re not just messing around,” said Stacey. “We are all huge fans of Shakespeare. I have had teachers come up to me after the shows and say they wished they could bring their students to see us as they would would get it.”

The irony for the cast is that they rehearse the production as a straight play.

“It’s quite sad from an actors’ perspective in a way,” said Stacey. “We will rehearse it for three weeks and get it to a point where it’s a fully-fledged work of Shakespeare and yet we never get to perform it as that.

“We don’t rehearse it with a drunk cast member, we don’t rehearse any of the drunk gags or reactions. You couldn’t. There is a different ending every night as it all depends of what happens in that show.

“We’re going on tour following 34 nights in London. You couldn’t possibly work on 34 different endings and then look at another 30-odd for the tour. It has to be spontaneous.”

Sh!t-faced Shakepeare's A Midsummer Night’s Dream, Blackburn Empire Theatre, Thursday, October 3, Details from www.blackburnempire.com