If you’re ever going to be involved in a production of Macbeth you should be very careful, and take precautions. Remember, you’ve been warned. There’s a curse on performances of the play. The first thing you should never do is mention the play’s title in the theatre. You should always refer to it as ‘The [...]
In the year in which the English speaking world is celebrating the four hundredth year of the King James Authorised bible it’s interesting to reflect on what a period 1604, when the work started, to 1611, when it was published, was in England. It’s almost impossible for us to imagine seven years of such literary [...]
What would Shakespeare make of our modern world? If he were suddenly to appear in London as a time traveler to the future he would find himself in the middle of a street crowd. The London of his time had a population of about twenty thousand but here he would see that number of people [...]
What would Shakespeare have thought about the things that we take for granted and which he never dreamt of? We all jump in a car at least once a day; we get on a plane and travel at incredible speed from once country to another; we push a button and watch wars being fought thousands [...]
People like to reflect on greatness and to make lists of the ten or hundred greatest men and women in history. Or in Britain, or in America, or in the world. When the Brits make lists of the greatest men and women in history the list tends to be dominated by Brits, American lists by [...]
It seems to be catching. But after all, this is the second Elizabethan age so harking back to the golden age of English theatre shouldn’t be surprising. Sam Wannermaker’s Globe Theatre in London has proved a great success and now it’s the turn of the North of England. Dame Judi Dench, Shakespearean actor and movie [...]
NoSweatShakespeare aims to present Shakespeare to our own generation as exciting and relevant…However, as children and young people all around the world are obliged to encounter his plays as part of their formal education, teachers and students are forever looking for resources that will give them a better understanding of the texts
I came across an article in the August 2nd edition of London’s Sunday Times. “A number of West End theatres are now employing bouncers to cope with intoxicated patrons who fight, fondle one another and even urinate in the auditorium. The yobbish behaviour has led to theatregoers being ejected during performances and police being called [...]
Language is a wonderful thing. We often choose our words carefully, depending on the occasion. But most of the time we are in informal situations, with our friends, classmates, colleagues and so on and then we go onto auto-pilot and our language just flows. Have you thought about the impossibility of speaking English without using [...]
In the last half century there have been some great speeches by American presidents and some have been wonderful orators. But there has been a striking lack of Shakespeare quotations and that’s strange when you think about it: Shakespeare had something beautiful, concise and definitive to say about every imaginable situation. Abraham Lincoln was one [...]