EDWARD Hall, artistic director of the acclaimed all-male Propeller theatre company, is currently directing Richard III and The Comedy of Errors at Newbury’s Watermill Theatre.

Propeller’s production of Richard III is a wonder of macabre beauty and bloody sensuality as the devilish House of York, led by the Machiavellian Richard, takes on the purer-than-pure House of Lancaster in an England riven by civil war. This production is the sixth and final chapter in Hall’s staging of Shakespeare’s complete Wars of the Roses cycle.

The Comedy of Errors is one of Shakespeare’s neatest comedies, a model of comic plotting and finely balanced construction. Two sets of twins, each separated from their sibling at birth, leave a perfectly symmetrical trail of confusion behind them when a shipwreck unites them on the same island.

Full of music, Propeller’s production will emphasise the light and the laughter in this intricately comic masterpiece.

Edward founded Propeller at The Watermill, and since then, his shows have included The Taming of the Shrew, Twelfth Night and The Merchant of Venice, The Winter’s Tale and Rose Rage.

The company retains many of the actors from previous shows including Richard Clothier, John Dougall, Dugald Bruce-Lockhart, Sam Swainsbury, Richard Frame, Jon Trenchard, Robert Hands, David Newman, Wayne Cater, Thomas Padden, Chris Myles, Dominic Tighe, Kelsey Brookfield, Tony Bell, Chris Myles and Dominic Tighe.

The final performance of Richard III takes place tonight, Thursday April 21, at 7.30pm. The Comedy of Errors runs from April 22-30.

Tickets are available from the box office on 01635 46044 or online at watermill.org.uk.