Tag Archives: Simon Callow

Shakespeare and Gay Britannia

On 27 July 1967 the Sexual Offences Act received Royal Approval in the UK, making private homosexual acts between men over the age of 21 legal. In the intervening fifty years attitudes have changed profoundly. Back in 1953 the newly-knighted … Continue reading

Share
Posted in Legacy | Tagged , , , , , , , , | 1 Comment

Memory, forgetting, and performance

Rebekah Brooks and others testifying to the Leveson Inquiry claim to have staggeringly poor memories of events. Zoe Williams, in her Guardian article of 11 May commented “You couldn’t live a life with this bad a memory. Never mind that you’d … Continue reading

Share
Posted in Legacy, Plays and Poems, Shakespeare on Stage | Tagged , , , , , , , , , , | Comments Off on Memory, forgetting, and performance

Celebrating Christmas with the Royal Shakespeare Company

At Christmas, the RSC traditionally gets into party mood by putting on a special show. This year the company has two: Matilda in London, after its successful premiere in Stratford last year, and The Heart of Robin Hood, at the … Continue reading

Share
Posted in Legacy, Shakespeare on Stage, Stratford-upon-Avon | Tagged , , , , , , , | 3 Comments

One-man shows and Shakespeare’s theatre

Last week I saw Eduardo de Filippo’s play The Syndicate, currently touring UK towns and cities. It stars two great Shakespearean actors, Ian McKellen and Michael Pennington. Watching them in this subtle play it occurred to me that the last … Continue reading

Share
Posted in Plays and Poems, Shakespeare on Stage, Shakespeare's World | Tagged , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , | 5 Comments

Tinker, Tailor, Soldier, Sailor: Shakespeare’s Lost Years

This week’s Start the Week on BBC Radio 4, broadcast on 4 July, asked how much we need to know about writers’ lives in order to fully appreciate their works. Contributors included a specialist on the medieval poet Dante and … Continue reading

Share
Posted in Plays and Poems, Shakespeare's World | Tagged , , , , , , , , , , , | Comments Off on Tinker, Tailor, Soldier, Sailor: Shakespeare’s Lost Years

Greatest Shakespeare speeches?

Thinking about my favourite Shakespeare speeches has been a pleasant diversion for a damp and blowy bank holiday weekend. It started when a neighbour kindly gave me a press cutting about Simon Callow’s new TV series on Sky Arts 1 … Continue reading

Share
Posted in Legacy, Plays and Poems | Tagged , , , | 6 Comments