Compositor E

There’s power in that fingerprint of yours. Make sure to use it wisely.

London 1623. Apprentice typesetter, 17-year-old John, arrives to work under the mentorship of ambitious printer Isaac Jaggard on a potentially game-changing new commission – Shakespeare’s first-ever complete works.

As John grapples to stamp a manuscript of Macbeth onto the page, fuelled by his dark past, he finds himself weaving his own narrative into the text. But as the ink sets, he begins questioning who the storytellers really are…

Longlisted for the Bruntwood Prize for Playwriting in 2022 and now revived in line with the 400th anniversary of the publication of the First Folio, Charlie Dupré's Compositor E celebrates the power of words and explores the many unlikely fingerprints that write and rewrite history.

This edition was published to coincide with the run at London's Omnibus Theatre in September 2023.