Author Archives: Sylvia Morris

Paul Robeson, Othello and Mixed Britannia

The BBC has just begun a mixed race season, examining how over the past 100 years Britain has come to be a country in which inter-racial partnerships are commonplace. The first documentary in the series Mixed Britannia looked at the … Continue reading

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Shakespeare and National Poetry Day

Thursday 6 October is National Poetry Day in the UK. With so much economic gloom in the news, and to mark the day, here are a couple of pieces of Shakespeare’s most beautiful poetry.  The first one comes from near … Continue reading

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Seeing the spider

Autumn’s coming round, and that means we are all seeing more spiders in homes, gardens and in the countryside. Spiders have always got a bad press. In folklore they’re associated with evil, malevolence, and rumoured to be venomous.  Spiders don’t … Continue reading

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Shakespearian stars 3: John Gielgud as Hamlet

If asked to name the greatest Hamlet of the mid-twentieth century most people would suggest Laurence Olivier. It was, though John Gielgud who received more critical acclaim and who, for people alive at the time, was most closely associated with … Continue reading

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Shakespeare and Doctor Who

    Doctor Who is a quintessentially English, science fiction TV programme which was first screened in 1963. To date eleven actors have played the part of the eccentric time-traveller.  A few weeks ago there was a jokey suggestion in … Continue reading

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Ralph Fiennes and Coriolanus on film

In the UK we’re in party conference season, where the political parties have their annual meetings: there’s much jostling for position while leaders try to reaffirm their dominance. And in the USA, although there’s over a year to go until … Continue reading

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The Parnassus Plays: our fellow Shakespeare

I’ve referred a couple of times in my blogs to the Parnassus plays. This trilogy of student dramas are usually relegated to the footnotes in Shakespeare biographies so I decided to do look at them in a bit more detail. … Continue reading

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Shakespeare’s plays in his lifetime: the Cambridge Conference

One of the sessions in the recent Cambridge Shakespeare Conference was on Shakespeare’s Plays in his Lifetime. Frustratingly little is known about the performance of Shakespeare’s plays and how they were originally received so I looked forward to hearing from people … Continue reading

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World Shakespeare Festival: is all the world a stage?

The plans for the biggest Shakespeare Festival ever to be staged have just been released. The World Shakespeare Festival will run from 23 April until September 2012, bringing artists from all over the world together in a UK-wide festival in … Continue reading

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Treasures of St John’s, Cambridge

  From 9-11 September Heritage Open Days all over the country celebrated the history, architecture, art and gardens of the UK.  The City of Cambridge opened up many of its historic sites, and while staying in the city I visited … Continue reading

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