Lucie Skeaping presents 'Singing Simpkin' & 'The Humour of John Swabber' - two short bawdy comedies with music

A semi-staged performance in period costume, introduced by Lucie Skeaping (presenter BBC Radio Three's Early Music Show, co-author of Singing Simpkin and Other Bawdy Jigs; director of The City Waites) and Tamsin Lewis (director of Passamezzo)

The through-sung 'dramatic jig' 'Singing Simpkin' is first recorded in 1595 and may be the work of the clown Will Kemp, one of the founders and star performer of Shakespeare's company, the Chamberlain's Men. 'Swabber' was performed by Robert Cox at the Red Bull in June 1653, when most of the theatres were closed by order of Parliament. Both appear in Cox's collection of farces, jigs and drolls Actaeon and Diana 1655/6.

Part of 'What you Will: King's Shakespeare Festival' and Shakespeare400