Monthly Archives: April 2015

Shakespeare’s Birthday Celebrations 2015

Yesterday, 25 April 2015, Stratford put its party hat on and celebrated Shakespeare’s 451st Birthday again in style. It’s always a great occasion consisting of lots of different elements: street entertainment, dancing, bands playing, the big procession, a lunch party. … Continue reading

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Shakespeare, Rupert Brooke and World War 1

Exactly 100 years ago, on 23 April 1915, the poet Rupert Brooke died aged 27 in the Aegean en route to battle in Gallipoli.  He’s often described as a World War 1 poet, but he was already an established poet destined … Continue reading

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Cheek by Jowl’s Measure for Measure coming to your laptop!

Cheek by Jowl’s Russian-language production of Measure for Measure, currently at the Barbican Theatre in London until 25 April, has received fantastic reviews. It’s been sold out for over a month, astonishing considering it’s being performed in Russian with surtitles. … Continue reading

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Celebrating Shakespeare’s birthday on foot and screen

My last blog post looked at some of the more official celebrations of Shakespeare’s birthday being held in Stratford, London, New York and Washington DC.  This time I’m filling in some of the gaps by including some links to other … Continue reading

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Celebrating Shakespeare’s 451st birthday on both sides of the Atlantic

April is a special month for Shakespeare-lovers, as we celebrate both the birth and death of William Shakespeare in 1564 and 1616. The birthday is traditionally celebrated on the 23rd, three days before his baptism at Holy Trinity Church was … Continue reading

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The sweet birds, O, how they sing!

Standing on the aptly-named Swallow Point, a promontory overlooking the Bristol Channel a week or so ago with some local birdwatchers, I was reminded what an exciting time this is for wildlife. They noted how many of the birds flying … Continue reading

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Shakespeare’s undiscovered play?

A few days ago I read the announcement that a new play by Shakespeare had been discovered. Well don’t get too excited because this is another bit of research looking at the Cardenio/Double Falsehood issue. I wrote a summary of … Continue reading

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Christopher Marlowe’s Jew of Malta

At the beginning of the RSC’s current production of Christopher Marlowe’s The Jew of Malta a young man, unacknowledged in the programme, bounds on stage and reveals beneath his jacket a T-shirt bearing the logo Royal Marlowe Company in the … Continue reading

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Wordsworth and Shakespeare

7 April 2015 was the 345th birthday of William Wordsworth, the Romantic poet most closely associated with nature, and one of England’s greatest writers. Like Shakespeare, houses associated with Wordsworth have been turned into literary shrines, though Shakespeare’s birthplace was … Continue reading

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Shakespeare and Easter

Over the Easter weekend we’ve probably all eaten too many Easter eggs and chocolate bunnies. As the first festival of spring, it’s also traditionally our first opportunity for getting outdoors after the cold, dark days of winter, when we enjoy the return … Continue reading

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