Coriolan/Us
The Globe to Globe’s seven week Shakespeare festival has just come to an end, and for anyone who hasn’t been able to keep up with it (which must include most of us), but would like a way of catching up, a new website The Space is capturing recordings on many of the events so far. It’s free, and to quote their publicity,
Available on computer, tablet, smartphone and connected TV, The Space invites you to take part in the biggest summer of arts the UK has ever seen, whenever you want it and wherever you happen to be.
From the front page you can find all the Shakespeare items by doing a search on his name, but you’ll also find lots of other material too. It’s an evolving site and one which should build into being a wonderfully valuable resource for both students and those interested in the arts.
If you want to read how they’ve put this site together, here’s an explanation.
But there’s still much to enjoy in the World Shakespeare Festival. The series of four history plays, The Hollow Crown, is now scheduled to be transmitted on BBC 2 from the end of June, and the filmed version of the RSC’s African Julius Caesar will hit BBC4 also at the end of June. Video clips relating to both these are available to whet your appetite: just follow the links.
Timon of Athens
In the theatre we can look forward to the National Theatre’s production of that rarity, Timon of Athens, with one of our greatest Shakespearean actors, Simon Russell Beale.
There’s a production of that great musical adaptation of Romeo and Juliet, West Side Story at the Sage in Gateshead, a reimagination by the National Theatre Wales of Shakespeare’s play Coriolanus, Coriolan/Us, drawing on a world of celebrity culture and 24 hour news, Verdi’s wonderful operas Otello and Falstaff at the Royal Opera House, and in Stratford, an Indian Much Ado About Nothing and a Russian version of A Midsummer Night’s Dream.
The British Museum’s exhibition Shakespeare: staging the world, begins in July. This is by no means all, and information about all these and more is at the official World Shakespeare Festival site.
Many of these performances and events will, hopefully, make their way onto The Space. It has the potential to become an indispensable part of the way culture is delivered, so do try it out.
Will we be able to purchase on DVD the four Shakespearean plays of ‘The Hollow Crown?’