Shakespeare

I don’t know about you, but I’m still hung up over Baz Lurhmann’s 1996 masterpiece, Romeo + Juliet. Young Claire Danes and a pre-Titanic Leonardo DiCaprio? Exquisite cinematography? An amazing 90’s-inspired soundtrack? A love story intertwined with a mafia crime family narrative? Original Shakespearean dialogue in a contemporary setting?...

Amongst the most common Halloween costume characters, zombies, vampires, ghosts… there is one that remains triumphant: the witch. But where does this fascination with witchcraft come from? Made punishable by death in the UK in 1542 under the reign of King Henry VIII, witchcraft was a crime leading to...

Shakespeare in Love is well-known as the 1998 histori-comedy that took the Academy Awards by storm, winning seven awards including Best Picture and Best Original Screenplay. And now, it seems to have found its way home in being transformed into a witty, timeless and innovative play. “For fans of...

It is presumed that around 1604, in between two acclaimed tragedies known as Othello and Macbeth, Shakespeare wrote the unrelentingly brilliant King Lear. “It is hard, almost impossible to imagine a time when McKellen won’t lead a production” Jonathan Munby’s adaption of the play, starring Ian McKellen, currently being...

Although most of theatre has retreated inside in modern years, outdoor theatre sessions, such as the ones that are taking place at Nottingham’s Heritage sites Newstead Abbey and Wollaton Hall, allow for modern audiences to get a taste of the theatre as it would have been in the days of...

Putting on a Shakespearean production is no easy task, least of all Macbeth, which is one of his greatest and most well-known tragedies. Despite this, director Ed Wiseman-Eggleton was up for the challenge, creating an innovative adaptation that kept the audience gripped from start to finish. With themes of murder, madness, love and kingship, the play is provocative even...

Perhaps the most unusual production of the season, Timon/Titus takes the key themes of Shakespeare’s classical tragedies Timon of Athens and Titus Andronicus and propels them into a contemporary spotlight. Focusing on the highly relevant themes of debt, family, tradition, race, gender, cultural exploitation, and of course revenge, the...