“Your work is the most sustained attempt to re-imagine what we think boy companies could do – and it will really rewrite the academic theatre history books.”
Emma Smith Professor of Shakespeare Studies, University of Oxford
Since 2005 Edward’s Boys (of King Edward VI School, Stratford-upon-Avon, a state grammar school, also known as K.E.S. and “Shakespeare’s School”) have been performing rarely-seen plays from the repertoire of the early modern boys’ companies.
Perry Mills was, until July 2023, Deputy Headmaster at King Edward VI School, Stratford-upon-Avon (generally known as “Shakespeare’s School”). For most of his career he has been a Head of English and Drama, and is a very experienced leader of workshops for teachers and students on a variety of related topics.
Edward’s Boys are proud to be part of King Edward VI School, a state school which tries to offer extra-curricular opportunities that are not only comparable to, but often surpass, those that are available in the independent sector. Unfortunately, we do not receive funding for these activities. The company survives primarily on ticket sales.
We have made the decision to make our film archive available online free of charge for the simple reason that we believe passionately in education. If you take advantage of this unique opportunity, please consider supporting the company’s work by making a donation via this website. Thank you, in advance.
Perry Mills
(On behalf of Edward’s Boys)
Edward’s Boys’ revivals of plays by the likes of Lyly, Middleton and Marston have informed and transformed my thinking about early modern drama and children’s company plays in particular. No modern revivals can give us concrete answers to our questions about the plays or their performance style, but over the last few years Perry MIlls’ lucid and imaginative productions have asked the very best kinds of questions.
Professor Lucy MunroKings College, London, Keele
I love the Edward’s Boys for their willingness to take leave of reality and abandon themselves to the magic of the theatre. That they are young and male hardly makes a difference, for they can perform whatever is called for in terms of age, gender, class, ethnicity, even size. With great energy and skill, often musical as well as dramatic, they discover the wit, pathos, irony in even the most abstruse lines. Of course, behind their performances is the genius of Perry Mills who breathes contemporary life into these largely forgotten early modern plays, turning the many hard challenges they pose into opportunities for strikingly imaginative solutions.
Professor Margreta de Grazia
They are our modern day “Little Eyases” as the companies of boy performers were referred to in Hamlet. But in fact the exercise is much more than that, and should I think be seen, as it deserves to be, in the wider context of Shakespeare study and performance worldwide…for me as a Shakespeare director, with particular interest in the repertoire of these contemporaries, these productions have proved invaluable… Forgive me for going on at length, but I think the school is producing something rather miraculous, and I suspect it is too easy for that to go unsaid.
Gregory Doran, Artistic DirectorRoyal Shakespeare Company
Anyone interested in early modern theatre should see an Edward’s Boys’ production. Their exploration of the repertory written for the Boys’ Companies may not be for the faint-hearted. The closed-minded will side with the anti-theatrical pamphleteers and declare that disguise is indeed a wickedness. The open-hearted will relish their performances as a revelation.
Patrick Spottiswoode, Director, Globe EducationShakespeare’s Globe
Edward’s Boys are a firm fixture on the map of the English theatrical scene—and they have also changed the map of how we think about early modern theatre (not just boys’ company plays). The boys – of all ages – are simultaneously innocent and knowing in performance, keeping city comedy teetering on the brink of send-up and making revenge tragedy able to confront its own excess.
Professor Laurie MaguireMagdalen College, Oxford