The Times - UK (2022-01-13)

the times | Thursday January 13 2022 21

News

partnership will begin

in May with five RSC

actors due to be on

board the ocean liner

for the productions

and workshops. They

are expected to have

two weeks of

rehearsals while the

ship is in dock, along

with a director, stage

manager, costume

supervisor, lighting

designer and sound

designer. Cunard will

provide the technical

support while at sea.

Whyman said

Boundless as the Sea

— created by Owen

Horsley based on

Shakespeare’s love

scenes — would be a

“heart-warming taster

of all the ways

Shakespeare explores

love and romance”. It

has previously been

performed only for

RSC donors, with a

“revised version

specially created for

Cunard”.

The other on-board

“premiere” will be an

abridged version of its

2018 musical Miss

Littlewood. Whyman

said it would be

“joyous, quirky and

toe-tapping”.

Shakespeare-at-Sea

swells the ranks of

cultural festivals

hosted by cruise

companies. Queen

Mary 2 already holds

the Cheltenham

Literature Festival, in

partnership with The

Times, and members

of the American Ballet

Theatre perform and

run barre classes with

a subsidiary of the

Royal Caribbean

Group.

The performing arts

and cruise sectors

have been hit hard by

the pandemic, with

both needing to find

new revenue streams.

The RSC has had a

near £50 million drop

in annual income and

was given a £19 million

loan by the

government’s Culture

Recovery Fund to

help secure its

immediate future.

JONATHAN ATKIN

The Royal
Shakespeare
Company will
premiere new
versions of
work including
Miss
Littlewood on
Queen Mary 2

Spurned woman

jailed after faking

boyfriend threats

Charlie Parker

A jilted woman who had her former

boyfriend arrested six times by sending

herself threats from fake Instagram ac-

counts has been jailed after police un-

ravelled her “web of poisonous deceit”.

Courtney Ireland-Ainsworth, 20,

created dozens of fake profiles to con-

vince officers that Louis Jolly had been

harassing her with abusive messages.

The DHL worker made ten police

statements in an attempt to paint Jolly

as a violent stalker. Liverpool crown

court was told that she claimed to have

received stab threats and that he took

videos of her in the street.

The accusations led to Jolly being

arrested six times and being handed a

stalking protection order. He lost his

job after being charged with assault and

stalking. Liverpool Echo reported that

he was handed a stalking protection

order and was given bail on a curfew.

Recorder Ian Harris told Ireland-

Ainsworth: “You created an entirely

fictional but superficially credible web

of poisonous deceit for over five

months. You had made a catalogue of

assertions in order to get Mr Jolly into

serious trouble.”

Jolly, 22, said that they had been in a

relationship for two years but broke up

on “OK terms” in October 2019.

Ireland-Ainsworth, of Runcorn,

Cheshire, was 19 at the time and began

dating another man. She then began

her “deliberate and malevolent lies”, the

court was told.

Paul Blasbery, for the prosecution,

said that from July to December 2020

she made numerous calls to police.

Jolly maintained his innocence as he

was accused of a catalogue of crimes.

Her web of lies was uncovered after

detectives requested user data from

Facebook, which owns Instagram. She

was arrested and confessed to pervert-

ing the course of justice.

Jim Smith, for the defence, said that

Ireland-Ainsworth was a teenager at

the time and was diagnosed as suffering

from “complex” post-traumatic stress

disorder. He added: “The defendant

and her family are truly sorry.”

Her sentence was reduced because of

her mental health difficulties and guilty

plea. She was given ten months in jail as

well as a ten-year restraining order.

Courtney Ireland-

Ainsworth said she

was “truly sorry”