Emily Carding is an experienced Shakespearean actor, having appeared in versions of over twenty of Shakespeare’s plays, both on stage and screen. They hold a BA (hons) in Theatre Arts from Bretton Hall and an MFA in Staging Shakespeare from the University of Exeter. Emily has, together with independent theatre company Brite Theater, created a number of challenging and innovative shows including Hamlet (an experience) and Richard III (A One Woman Show) - now retitled Richard III (a one person show)-both of which have won awards and rave reviews internationally. Both adaptations use the audience as characters within the play and create a truly immersive experience with very little other than actor, text, space and audience. Emily is also an accomplished screen actor, and played opposite Martin Freeman in the British horror movie hit, Ghost Stories.
In 2018 Emily was commissioned by London Science Museum to create a solo theatre piece inspired by Mary Shelley’s Frankenstein. Quintessence imagines a future where humanity has become extinct and must be recreated by an AI, using Shakespeare as a guide to the human spirit. This won the outstanding theatre award at Brighton Fringe in 2019. A new version is being developed with director Susan Luciani to incorporate immersive projection.
Emily is also a published creator of a number of highly popular Tarot decks including The Transparent Tarot, The Transparent Oracle and Tarot of the Sidhe, and author of esoteric works, including Faery Craft,(Llewellyn 2012) So Potent Art: The Magic of Shakespeare (Llewellyn 2021) and Seeking Faery (Llewellyn 2022)
Latest News
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Magic of Shakespeare
online guest lecture
Emily will be giving a guest lecture on the mythic qualities of The Winter's Tale as part of Carterhaugh School of Folklore's latest online course!
More details and booking HERE
Richard III (a one person show)
Richard III is back, after a wonderful response to shows in Kansas City!
This innovative and exciting solo adaptation of Shakespeare's play is coming to the Brockley Jack studio theatre, Shakespeare North in June 2023, and South Korea in September 2023.
‘Emily Carding and Kolbrun Bjort Sigfusdottir’s adaptation of Richard III is a smart, sparse, stripped back version of the text built around Carding’s utterly compelling performance.’ ★★★★ The Stage
‘Emily Carding’s portrayal of the king who murders his way to the English throne is in a league of its own.’ ★★★★★ Broadway Baby
‘an extraordinary performance from Emily Carding, a female Richard as bitter, damaged, ingenious and irresistible as any I’ve ever seen.’ ★★★★ The Scotsman
‘Coolly psychotic’ ★★★★ New York Times
Booking is open for London dates HERE!
And Shakespeare North HERE!
Caliban's Codex
Solo retelling of The Tempest written by prolific Hastings playwright John Knowles, Caliban's Codex is returning for a short run at Shakespeare North Playhouse in September.
Book HERE
In the twelve years since Prospero’s departure, Caliban has painstakingly sifted through the ashes of the books of magic, slowly piecing together a new language and a way to save this island from mankind’s abuse.
‘There is no welcome here for you, your kind. Mankind, for there is nothing kind in man.’
Caliban’s Codex is a new monologue by the writer John Knowles (Twelfth Night Trilogy) created with Emily Carding (Richard III – Brite Theater). Inspired by Shakespearean iambic pentameter, this one-person show explores loss, abuse and magic and is a disturbing insight into Caliban’s world view.
Shadowless
SHADOWLESS is a ghost story thriller, featuring a girl artist and a master female shaman who becomes her mentor…and tormentor: inspired by the diaries of women working with Carlos Castaneda, whose books about their group have sold more than 8 million copies worldwide and published in 17 languages. The production blends stage performance with film sequences as the girl navigates her shaman apprenticeship, isolated in a Mexican farm house in the Badlands. What begins as a mystical adventure quickly descends into a nightmarish existence where the boundaries of reality become blurred between waking and dreaming as she comes face to face with manifestations of her greatest fears.
Starring award winning actor Emily Carding "One of the UK's leading Shakespearean actors" The Stage Writer Director Susan Luciani creates the show as a thrill ride, full of twists and turns and scares in an exploration of Womanhood, power play and the realm of the Unexplained. "
Book HERE!
Let the Bodies Pile,
by Henry Naylor
Emily will be working with Henry Naylor on his latest play, premiering at Edinburgh Fringe where it will play at Gilded Balloon for all of August. Book HERE
What connects two seemingly unrelated killings, 27 years apart? In 1993, Steve's mother dies suddenly; can he trust GP Harold Shipman's 'Natural Causes' diagnosis? And in 2020, when dozens die in a Yorkshire Care Home; is Covid responsible, or something more sinister? Three-time Fringe First winner Naylor has won over 45 major international fringe theatre awards, and currently holds the IFES World's Best Fringe Theatre title. Bobby Award-winning, and Outstanding Theatre Award-winning (Brighton Fringe) actress Emily Carding stars, and it's directed by the SoHo Playhouse (New York)'s Artistic Director, Darren Lee Cole.
Quintessence tour
Emily's award-winning Shakespeare-infused sci-fi solo show, Quintessence, will be touring again in 2023, beginning with the British Invasion festival in Kansas City, Missouri, USA.
In May 2023 it will be playing in the mornings at the Plough Arts Centre in North Devon, in a reimagined production with new direction and projection from director Susan Luciani, who will be giving a Q&A about her work in film and special effects after the performance. Tickets HERE!
If you'd like to discuss booking this award-winning, political sci-fi for your venue, please contact Emily HERE
Workshops and Lectures
Emily has run workshops and given talks on many subjects internationally, including Shakespeare, Tarot, Mythology, Alternative Spirituality and Folklore. Their most recent speaker event was the Hekate Symposium, where they explored the presence of the Goddess Hekate in Shakespeare's works. This was virtually attended by roughly 700 people around the world and was a huge success. More details here!
To book Emily for your event or workshop, please email using the button below:
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