I’ve done a lot of on-your-feet Shakespeare readings in pubs, bars, restaurants, cafes, etc. Here are some tips for working in that kind of space:
Distance is your friend! Put big chunks of the audience between you & your scene partners whenever possible. This brings them in to the play.
If you feel the temptation to get close to a scene partner, resist it for a bit, see how that feels. If you yield to the temptation, yield for a couple of seconds, and then let the tension of the moment push you away to distance like opposing magnets.
Depending on the space, use levels but sparingly. Don’t go low unless you absolutely have to, because you’ll be hidden by other people and folks won’t see you (and will have a harder time hearing you).
Talk to the audience on the far side of the room, and always bite in to your words (enunciation). The pub is a noisy, active place. Enunciation will cut through the aural clutter better than volume will push over it.
Talk to the audience as much as possible. It’s not just soliloquies and monologues, it’s whenever you possibly can. This involves them & grabs them.
When you talk to a nearby audience member, give them just enough to hook them (up to 1 line of verse) and then find someone on the other side of the room to address the next line to.
You should always be playing in the round. Be in between their tables, be shoulder to shoulder at the bar, always remember to play your “back space” and let the audience behind you have a show.
See if you can store a whole line and the cue into your short term memory so you can speak it without looking at your script, BUT
Don’t try to hide your script! They know it’s a reading, don’t try to pretend it’s not. When you’re speaking hold your script in front of you near eye level. Talk just over your script at whoever you’re addressing, so your eyes don’t have to travel too far to grab the next line. The worst case is holding your script down by your side, unless you’re SURE you have the next line you have to say memorized.
Embrace the challenge of script in one hand, drink in the other. Enjoy not having a free hand. Gesture with your drink or your script. Keep both active.
Don’t pretend you’re putting on a play – you’re doing a fun on-your-feet reading in a pub. Instead of bringing in realistic props from your collection (we all have one), grab something from the “pub vernacular” to use.
Pub vernacular for costume: when considering character fashion, think “What would my character wear to a pub?”
BIG, BOLD choices! You only get to do this once – might as well have fun, and your failures will be as much fun as your successes, if not more.
But when being BIG & BOLD, also take care of your comrades and your audience.
Specifically, don’t yell, don’t slam tables, don’t break anything.
And relatedly, use the pub vernacular for fights, too. If it’s a silly scene, steal forks or knives for fencing, or have a drinking contest (take care of yourself!). If it’s serious, find a way to play the fight seriously but at distance. There is no way the audience is going to be impressed by your fight choreo, because you don’t have time to build impressive fight choreo. But they will be impressed by finding themselves between two people fighting in an abstract or metaphorical way for their lives, and they will feel your wounds even if they are not seeing them portrayed in a literal fashion.