Author Archives: Sylvia Morris

Not Shakespeare, and not Blackfriars

It’s always tempting to speculate on what might have happened if things had been different, and in the Artsnight programme Not Shakespeare, broadcast on 19 June Andrew Marr looked at the world of the Elizabethan and Jacobean theatre, and what … Continue reading

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John Gerarde’s History of Plants and other herbals

A valuable aspect of the debate about the proposed new lifetime portrait of Shakespeare is the interest it has raised in John Gerarde’s Herball. The previous Director of the Shakespeare Birthplace Trust, Roger Pringle, and his wife Marian (Senior Librarian … Continue reading

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David Suchet, Oscar Wilde and Shakespeare

Next week a production of Oscar Wilde’s most famous play, The Importance of Being Earnest, opens in the West End of London. The production stars one of best-loved actors, David Suchet, in the leading role of Lady Bracknell. A few … Continue reading

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British Shakespeare Association Education Network

It’s been a while since I wrote about the British Shakespeare Association, and in particular its Education Network. Membership of the Association usually drops a bit between the organisation’s biennial conferences (the 2016 conference will be at the University of … Continue reading

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The James Shirley Marathon

Next week, beginning on 15 June, the Shakespeare Institute at Stratford-upon-Avon is embarking on another marathon reading of the complete work of a playwright of the sixteenth or early seventeenth century. Last year it was Thomas Heywood, the year before it … Continue reading

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Anticipating Macbeth on film

It doesn’t often happen that a Shakespeare film is dubbed “The “Most Anticipated Film” of the year, but this is how the adaptation of Macbeth directed by Justin Kurzel and starring Michael Fassbender and Marion Cotillard has been described. The … Continue reading

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Shakespeare Conferences

Summer has arrived right on cue in Stratford-upon-Avon, with blue skies and warm temperatures encouraging people to picnic on the grass and take out boats on the Avon. Walking by the river late on Thursday afternoon I watched people learning … Continue reading

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Burghley, Gerarde and Shakespeare examined again

Last week the second of Mark Griffiths’ pieces about Gerarde’s Herball and its connections with Shakespeare was published in Country Life, and I’m grateful to friends for lending me copies of both. They’ve made interesting reading: Griffiths is  extremely knowledgeable … Continue reading

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Rosalinds in Arden

Michelle Terry is blasting her way through Shakespeare’s forthright heroines. Having spent the winter playing Rosaline in Love’s Labour’s Lost and Beatrice in Much Ado About Nothing, both for the RSC in Stratford, she is now taking on Shakespeare’s most … Continue reading

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More matter for a May morning: Gerarde’s Herball and Shakespeare

After a few days away out of reach of the internet I returned home to find a new Shakespeare controversy had erupted. Country Life, not normally known for its Shakespeare content, had published a “Special Historic Edition” on 20 May … Continue reading

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