Category Archives: Stratford-upon-Avon

Shakespeare and the UNESCO Memory of the World

The good news has been announced that the Shakespeare documents held by the National Archives and the Shakespeare Birthplace Trust have been accepted onto the UNESCO Memory of the World UK register, recognising their national and international significance.  This is … Continue reading

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Remembering Buzz Goodbody at The Other Place

This week the Royal Shakespeare Company has been celebrating the opening of what is being called The Other Place at the Courtyard Theatre, a temporary re-imagining of the studio theatre which was once called “the most productive tin hut in … Continue reading

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Reading Thomas Heywood

Down at the Shakespeare Institute in Stratford-upon-Avon the students are holding another marathon playreading. In 2013 it was Beaumont and Fletcher, with a tally of 53 plays and 1 masque. This year, between 9 and 28 June they are taking … Continue reading

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Stratford’s Elizabethan wall-paintings

In 1927, during renovation work in a building in Stratford-upon-Avon, an important discovery was made. The White Swan Hotel was being modernised by the hotel group Trust Houses Limited, and workmen found evidence of surviving wall-paintings concealed behind panelling. Work … Continue reading

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Cycling in Shakespeare country

It’s  the bank holiday weekend, what used to be festival of Whitsun,  traditionally marked by fairs and pageants, what Shakespeare calls “Whitsun pastorals”. The first holiday of summer, all the celebrations are going to be out of doors. Morris dancing … Continue reading

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Celebrating Shakespeare and Purcell with the Orchestra of the Swan

Stratford-upon-Avon’s own chamber orchestra, the Orchestra of the Swan, is currently celebrating Shakespeare’s 450th anniversary by performing four concerts of music inspired by his work. The first concert, last Friday, included the lovely orchestral suite written by Henry Purcell for … Continue reading

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Congratulations to David Bradley!

It’s truly wonderful news that actor David Bradley has won a BAFTA after a forty-year career that has spanned theatre, TV and film. Not surprisingly, the award he won is Best Supporting Actor in the hit TV drama Broadchurch. David … Continue reading

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Thomas Nast’s The Immortal Light of Genius

Browsing Julia Thomas’s book Shakespeare’s Shrine recently, I came across a reference to a painting created at the height of Shakespeare worship. By Thomas Nast, it was entitled “The Immortal Light of Genius”, commissioned by the great actor Henry Irving … Continue reading

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Henry IV Part 1: relaying the live event

Earlier this week I attended the performance of Henry IV Part 1 performed at the Royal Shakespeare Theatre, that was being simultaneously broadcast to cinemas around the UK, and is to be shown in schools, around the world and eventually … Continue reading

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Celebrating 450: the Shakespeare legacy

As I write, we’re reaching the end of the celebrations for Shakespeare’s 450th anniversary. It’s an extraordinary record, and academic Jonathan Bate has recently written about Shakespeare’s status as universal cultural icon. Bate suggests that although the 1964 celebrations were large, they … Continue reading

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