Category Archives: Plays and Poems

Playing the Macbeths

Posted on May 31, 2012 by Sylvia Morris

Macbeth and Lady Macbeth are two of Shakespeare’s most intriguing inventions. No matter how many times you see the play or read it, you are always left with questions. Which of them is more to blame for Duncan’s murder? Are the … Continue reading →

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The death of kings

Posted on May 21, 2012 by Sylvia Morris

The 21st May is the anniversary of the murder of Henry VI, according to Shakespeare committed by Richard Duke of Gloucester, later to be Richard III. And 22nd May is the anniversary of capture of Henry VI by the Yorkists. … Continue reading →

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Setting Shakespeare’s drama in context

Posted on May 19, 2012 by Sylvia Morris

I’ve been looking at  the first volume of a new reference work, British Drama 1533-1642: A Catalogue. Volume 1, 1533-1566, and recently met with its author Dr Martin Wiggins, Senior Lecturer and Fellow of the Shakespeare Institute in Stratford-upon-Avon. It’s a … Continue reading →

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Memory, forgetting, and performance

Posted on May 16, 2012 by Sylvia Morris

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 →

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The Comedy of Errors

Posted on May 11, 2012 by Sylvia Morris

The RSC’s Shipwreck trilogy is subtitled “What country friends is this?” and in the production of The Comedy of Errors directed by the Palestinian Amir Nizar Zuabi, it’s a question that the audience might easily find themselves asking. Set in … Continue reading →

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Julius Caesar: Shakespeare’s African play

Posted on April 30, 2012 by Sylvia Morris

In this year of firsts, Greg Doran, who’s about to take over the running of the Royal Shakespeare Company, is creating a few firsts of his own. He’s currently rehearsing the first RSC Shakespeare production featuring a completely black cast. … Continue reading →

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Shakespeare’s well-apparell’d April

Posted on April 27, 2012 by Sylvia Morris

Shakespeare loved spring, and April, with its freshness and optimism is the month of which he writes most fondly. I couldn’t let it go by without a post containing a few of his lines, together with a selection of photographs … Continue reading →

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Music for Shakespeare’s Henry V: Val Brodie’s discoveries

Posted on April 4, 2012 by Sylvia Morris

One of the quiet pleasures of being a librarian is the satisfaction of finding an elusive fact for a reader, or helping them make a discovery about a previously unrecognised item. The Shakespeare Centre Library and Archive holds quite a number … Continue reading →

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Shakespeare’s shipwrecks

Posted on March 21, 2012 by Sylvia Morris

Last week on Twitter, someone drily pointed out in response to the RSC’s new season, that Shakespeare never wrote a shipwreck trilogy. The What country friends is this? season is certainly unusual, and the cynical might say it’s a marketing … Continue reading →

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Shakespeare and the staff of life

Posted on March 19, 2012 by Sylvia Morris

Drought, crop failure, disease. The TV shows pictures of helpless people trying to dig in soil as dry as dust: unless international action is taken to help they will soon become heart-wrenching images of starving children. In Kenya alone there … Continue reading →

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