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Category Archives: Plays and Poems
Comic artists with a sense of Shakespeare’s poetry: Des Barrit and George R Weir
This week I finally caught up with the RSC’s joyful production of The Merry Wives of Windsor. It was the company’s grown-up Christmas extravaganza and if you have the chance, there are still a couple of performances which are guaranteed … Continue reading
Posted in Plays and Poems, Shakespeare on Stage, Stratford-upon-Avon
Tagged Benson window, clowns, Des Barrit, George R Weir, The Earth Awakes, The Merry Wives of Windsor
Comments Off on Comic artists with a sense of Shakespeare’s poetry: Des Barrit and George R Weir
Brian Cox’s Titus Andronicus: “the greatest stage performance I’ve ever given”
Earlier in the week an interview with Brian Cox (the actor not the scientist) was published in which he commented that the production of Titus Andronicus in the Swan Theatre in 1987 was “the most interesting thing I’ve ever done … Continue reading
Shakespeare’s blasts of January
When icicles hang by the wall And Dick the shepherd blows his nail And Tom bears logs into the hall And milk comes frozen home in pail, When blood is nipp’d and ways be foul, Then nightly sings the staring … Continue reading
Posted in Plays and Poems, Shakespeare's World
Tagged Breughel, British Library, Love's Labour's Lost, Nicholas Breton, Thomas Tusser, winter
Comments Off on Shakespeare’s blasts of January
The legend of Herne’s Oak
The Merry Wives of Windsor is set in the depth of winter, the season Shakespeare associates with eating, drinking, telling stories, singing, and practical jokes. It’s also one of the few plays for which Shakespeare invented the plot, and he … Continue reading
Posted in Legacy, Plays and Poems
Tagged fairies, Falstaff, Herne's Oak, The Merry Wives of Windsor, winter
2 Comments
Women in the theatre: what next after Julius Caesar?
Phyllida Lloyd’s all-female production of Julius Caesar has now opened to great reviews: here are two from the Guardian and the Observer. More information, including an image gallery, is available on the Donmar Warehouse’s website. The production has created quite … Continue reading
Measure for Measure, Pericles and Leveson
O place and greatness … millions of false eyes Are stuck upon thee: volumes of report Run with these false and most contrarious quests Upon thy doings: thousand escapes of wit Make thee the father of their idle dream, And … Continue reading
Posted in Plays and Poems, Shakespeare's World
Tagged Duncan Salkeld, Leveson Inquiry, Measure for Measure, Pericles, prostitution
4 Comments
Adapting Shakespeare’s Henry VI: The Wars of the Roses
Until a few years ago the Henry VI plays were rarely performed, especially outside Stratford-upon-Avon, so the news that next year Shakespeare’s Globe is going to be touring the plays to venues in the UK is to be welcomed. I’ve … Continue reading
Valuing performance: violins, Vaughan Williams and Henry V
This morning violinist Tasmin Little was interviewed on Radio 4’s flagship news programme Today, talking about rare violins and their value. In Vienna the verdict in the trial of Dietmar Machold, accused of fraud and embezzlement in the trade of … Continue reading
Funeral monuments: remembering Shakespeare’s Henry V and Richard III
Hung be the heavens with black, yield day to night! Comets, importing change of times and states, Brandish your crystal tresses in the sky, And with them scourge the bad revolting stars That have consented unto Henry’s death! King Henry … Continue reading
Posted in Legacy, Plays and Poems, Shakespeare's World
Tagged burial, funeral, Henry V, Henry VI Part 1, memorial, Richard III, Shakespeare: staging the world
3 Comments
Shakespeare and Hallowe’en: not just Macbeth
The Elizabethan and Jacobeans had superstitions covering almost every area of life. Supernatural explanations for natural phenomena were widely accepted: the appearance of a comet in 1577 caused public alarm, and even historian John Stow believed the story that the striking … Continue reading
Posted in Plays and Poems, Shakespeare's World
Tagged conjuration, Duchess of Gloucester, Hallowe''en, Henry VI Part 2, Macbeth, magic, supernatural, superstition
1 Comment