Monthly Archives: June 2012

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

Share
Posted in Shakespeare on Stage, Shakespeare's World | Tagged , , , , | 1 Comment

Julius Caesar on stage and screen

Greg Doran’s production of Julius Caesar breaks new ground. With an all-black cast, set in an unnamed modern African city rather than imperial Rome, the film version has been shown on TV while still being performed onstage at the Royal … Continue reading

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

Tennis and football: ball games in Shakespeare’s England

The Olympics are still weeks away but we’re already awash with sporting events. Football’s Euro2012 is still in full swing, and today the nation’s annual two-week love affair with tennis, strawberries and cream begins at Wimbledon. Tennis and football are … Continue reading

Share
Posted in Legacy, Shakespeare's World | Tagged , , , , , , , , , | Comments Off on Tennis and football: ball games in Shakespeare’s England

Revealing Shakespeare’s hidden history

In the year of the World Shakespeare Festival a new biography of Shakespeare has hit the bookstands. It’s done so with little fanfare, perhaps appropriately since it has the title Hidden Shakespeare. It sometimes seems that every author feels obliged … Continue reading

Share
Posted in Legacy, Shakespeare's World, Stratford-upon-Avon | Tagged , , | 4 Comments

Julius Caesar and Shakespeare’s power to persuade

I’ve always thought of rhetoric as a rather dry subject, but in a recent lecture barrister Benet Brandreth, the Royal Shakespeare Company’s Rhetoric Coach, zipped entertaingly through some of the principles in an hour. He succeeded in demonstrating how powerfully rhetoric, and in … Continue reading

Share
Posted in Plays and Poems, Shakespeare's World | Tagged , , , , , , , , | Comments Off on Julius Caesar and Shakespeare’s power to persuade

Sir Kenneth Branagh’s Shakespeare

This year The Queen’s Birthday Honours list has recognised a bumper crop of people in the arts. For me the most pleasing was the knighthood which has been awarded to Kenneth Branagh. His association with Shakespeare goes back to his … Continue reading

Share
Posted in Plays and Poems, Shakespeare on Stage | Tagged , , , | 6 Comments

The case for Anne Hathaway

Last week I attended a lecture in which the speaker said, with a laugh, that according to Stephen Greenblatt and others Shakespeare left Stratford in order to get away from his wife. I bristled. Why, when it wasn’t relevant to the … Continue reading

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

Shakespeare and The Space

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, … Continue reading

Share
Posted in Legacy, Plays and Poems, Shakespeare on Stage | Tagged , , , , , , | 1 Comment

Shakespeare’s infinite variety

I’m always impressed by the number of ways in which people adapt Shakespeare. He and his works seem to have something to say to everyone. Since I began writing this blog I’ve been contacted by many people telling me what they’ve … Continue reading

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

Digging for The Curtain Theatre: archaeological discoveries

On Wednesday morning the news broke that archaeologists have found the remains of the Curtain Theatre in the Shoreditch area of north London, where it’s thought Shakespeare’s  plays Henry V and Romeo and Juliet were performed, perhaps for the first time. … Continue reading

Share
Posted in Legacy, Shakespeare's World | Tagged , , , , , , , , | 1 Comment