The conspirary that Shakespeare didn’t write his plays exists in some circles, which leads to the question who wrote Shakespeare’s plays and sonnets? We address the William Shakespeare authorship controversy here, but thought we’d take a closer look at the candidates who may have written Shakespeare’s plays according to the conspiracy theorists. Authorship Candidate 1: [...]
As the summer-spanning Shakespeare extravaganza that is the World Shakespeare Festival comes to an end in the UK we’ve flicked through the NoSweatShakespeare facebook page to pull together a selection of our favourite moments from the festival. With over 70 productions and exhibitions, 50 theatre companies and thousands of international artists there was certainly plenty of choice, but the [...]
Though rumors (and conspiracy theories!) abound, not too many concrete facts are known about Shakespeare. We have a page on Shakespeare facts, detailing the bog standard Shakespeare info, but on this page we’ve tried to pull together 23 interesting Shakespeare pieces of Shakespeare information that you’ve probably not come across before – the quirkier side of the Bard [...]
We’ve been trawling the internet of late for some comedy takes on Shakespeare to share on the NoSweatShakespeare facebook page, and slowly but surely have stumbled across the internet sub-culture of “memes”. Warning: 30 second internet culture/patronizing lesson coming up! Historically, a meme has meant a discrete “package of culture” that travels via word of mouth – as a [...]
The Hatwalk event – commissioned by the Mayor of London as part of the London 2012 festival - started before dawn on July 30th when 21 of London’s best known statues were given bespoke head-wear…one of London’s more wacky arts events to take place this summer. The Shakespeare bust in Leicester Square was given a bunny baseball hat, [...]
In spite of experiencing the worst summer weather since records began London is more crowded this summer than it has ever been. There was the Wimbledon tennis tournament earlier this month and the 2012 Olympic Games begin later this week. There is also, of course, an international Shakespeare Festival: the Proms, the world’s biggest classical [...]
Who knew that Shakespeare’s sonnets and mathematics were so linked? In the super-interesting video below, Professor Roger Bowley talks about the tight constraints – and shape – that numbers gave to Shakespeare’s sonnets.
As I look around at the Shakespeare scene in England at the moment I’m struck by how many young people take to the stage. Actors have flooded in from around the world to participate in the Shakespeare festivities. It’s interesting to reflect on the young man who came to London one day four hundred years [...]
When the young William Shakespeare went to London, almost a hundred miles away from his hometown of Stratford Upon Avon, to look for work, he was doing something unusual. Most young men stayed at home and usually went into the same area of work as their fathers. One might have expected young William to become [...]
This year, 2012, is probably the biggest year for William Shakespeare in England since his death. Two of the UK’s biggest cultural institutions, the BBC and the Royal Shakespeare Company, have teamed up with the World Shakespeare Festival to provide a huge Shakespeare tapestry covering the country in the media and on stages in Stratford, London, Newcastle, Birmingham, Wales and Scotland. [...]