Tag Archives: fire

Shakespeare, bonfires and climate change

Guy Fawkes Night, or Bonfire Night, celebrated in the UK on 5 November, marks the anniversary of an attempt to blow up Parliament in 1605 while Shakespeare was living and working in London. Macbeth was his strongest response to the … Continue reading

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Shakespeare and the destructiveness of fire

Shakespeare uses fire as a metaphor for the energy of life as well as the destructiveness of death. He writes of the fires of purgatory, of the warming fire on the hearth and of the fires lit to tell of … Continue reading

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The Swan Wing takes flight

Last week the Royal Shakespeare Company announced the start of a major project to restore what is now called the Swan Wing, the most historic part of their complex of buildings. From January work will begin on both the exterior and … Continue reading

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Relics of the Shakespeare Memorial Theatre’s fire

Last year on 6 March, the anniversary of the fire that destroyed the first Shakespeare Memorial Theatre I wrote a piece about the events of the day. Most people who were living in the town at the time remembered it … Continue reading

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Oh sorrow, pitiful sorrow: the burning of Shakespeare’s Globe

  The Globe Theatre, that most famous building, burned to the ground on 29 June 1613. It had stood for only 14 years. It would have been front page news, if newspapers had existed then: at least five separate accounts of … Continue reading

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Sorrow, pitiful sorrow; the burning of the Shakespeare Memorial Theatre

In the early afternoon of Saturday 6 March 1926 a man was cycling down Chapel Lane in Stratford when he spotted smoke coming from the roof of the Shakespeare Memorial Theatre in front of him. He immediately took action to … Continue reading

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Shakespeare’s Avon, Act 6: Royal Shakespeare Theatre

The Royal Shakespeare Theatre sits right on the bank of the River Avon in Stratford. When the idea of a permanent memorial to Shakespeare in his town was first suggested in the aftermath of the 1864 Tercentenary Celebrations, it was … Continue reading

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