BOOST: Watch ‘The Great Shakespeare Showdown’ at EdFringe 2026 – “Love wordplay and wit? Delight in tales of the Wild West?” (Ad)

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Love wordplay and wit? Delight in tales of the Wild West? Ever hear of Shakespeare spouting miners from the 1880s? Did Shakespeare really write a sonnet about Colorado, USA? Only The Great Shakespeare Showdown can answer any of those questions and must be for you!

The time is 1882, the place, the opulent Tabor Opera House, Leadville, Colorado, real-life location of the richest silver strikes in the 19th century. The players are Sir Charles Goodknight, fresh from London, England and Mrs. Harriet Twelvetrees, The Golden Glittering American Star, locked in a duel to the theatrical death, shooting it out with quotations, soliloquies, and sonnets, and the occasional colourful Shakespearean slander. 

Billy D. Holcombe, silver miner and Shakespeare devotee, is the master of ceremonies and no slouch in the quotation department themselves.  How can a miner know Shakespeare you ask? Believe it or not, Bill Shakespeare was a favourite west of the Mississippi; you can still find mines named for his plays and characters across Colorado and the American West. Rumour has it that Richard III and Othello were the most performed plays, but those frontier folk loved their As You Like It too

The Great Shakespeare Showdown is a rootin’ tootin’ knock-down, drag-out, take no prisoners Fringe premiere guaranteed to make you laugh, cry, or laugh till you cry, as you are swept along and dazzled by the talents Sir Charles, Harriet and Billy D. Holcombe. 

Note: Pickaxes and all weaponry must be left at the door.  The Opera House management are so tickled pink at having such a sophisticated entertainment to offer that they’ve even put out clean spittoons. Our big hope is that you’ll come along and play your part. Cheer your hero, boo their nemesis and have fun seeing if you can out-quote our players.

Catch The Great Shakespeare Showdown at the Haldane Theatre at theSpace @ Surgeons’ Hall on August 7th – 22nd (not on Sundays) from 15:10 (55mins). Tickets are available through theSpaceUK Online Box Office.

The Great Shakespeare Showdown (Flying Solo! Presents)

Draw your quills, sharpen your wits and polish your pickaxes for the Great Shakespeare Showdown! Cheer, hiss and boo with the silver miners of Leadville, Colorado through this highfalutin verbal duel as the acclaimed Shakespeareans and renowned thespians, England’s Sir Charles GoodKnight and America’s Mrs. Twelvetrees, do battle using Shakespeare’s own words to be crowned The Wild West’s Best Bard 1882.