The Pleasure of His Company: Our Love Affair with William Shakespeare and the First Folio

Honoring the anniversary of the birth and death of William Shakespeare, Centenary Stage Company presents classical theatre giants Randall Duk Kim and Anne Occhiogrosso starring in The Pleasure of His Company: Our Love Affair with William Shakespeare and the First Folio, an evening of personal recollections, dramatic scenes, and stories of Shakespeare's influence on Kim and Occhiogrosso's lives and careers for more than four decades.

The two-character performance piece, conceived and written by Kim and Occhiogrosso for the celebration of Shakespeare’s 400-year legacy, combines performances of signature Shakespearean dramatic scenes with performance pieces which celebrate Shakespeare’s contribution to world literature. The evening is also a tribute to the First Folio, the 1623 collection of Shakespeare’s plays which scholars cite as the most authentic and reliable versions of a majority of the playwright’s texts. 

The Pleasure of His Company made its world premiere to a sold-out audience at the University of Wisconsin presented by The Arts Institute and the Wisconsin Union Directorate.  The premiere performance was a prelude to the Folger Shakespeare Library's national exhibition of an original edition of the First Folio.

The Sunday, April 23 performance will include signature scenes from Hamlet, King Lear, Macbeth and many other Shakespeare plays. The performance will be followed by a Q&A session with the artists. It is free to the public but reservations are strongly recommended.

For more information or to reserve seats, visit www.centenarystageco.org or call the Centenary Stage Company box office at (908) 979-0900. The box office is open Monday through Friday from 1-5pm and two hours prior to each performance.  The Centenary Stage Company box office is located in the Lackland Performing Arts Center on the campus of Centenary University at 715 Grand Avenue Hackettstown, NJ.