Blogging Shakespeare

In the Raspberry Hills Library English Book Circle the question has often been raised of how much we can accept things done to the classics. Can Robert Downey Jr. and Jude Law really do that to Sherlock Holmes and Dr. Watson?  Can Laurie R. King really have a feisty young Marry Russell marry an aging […]

We have only two records of a performance of The Comedy of Errors during Shakespeare’s working life the first was at the Gray’s Inn a treat perhaps for the barristers there which formed part of their Christmas revels.  What is interesting is how this highlights the transferable nature of Shakespeare’s plays and how he wrote […]

This post is part of Year of Shakespeare, a project documenting the World Shakespeare Festival, the greatest celebration of Shakespeare the world has ever seen.   A Soldier in Every Son – The Rise of the Aztecs,  a play by Luis Mario Moncada translated by Gary Owen, Compania Nacional de Teatro de Mexico / Royal Shakespeare […]

This post is part of Year of Shakespeare, a project documenting the World Shakespeare Festival, the greatest celebration of Shakespeare the world has ever seen.   The Comedy of Errors, Roy-e-Sabs, dir.  Corinne Jaber, 31 May 2012 at The Globe, London By Stephen Purcell, University of Warwick At the beginning of Roy-e-Sabs’ production of The Comedy of Errors, the Afghan […]

“What country, friends, is this?” What are some of the artistic and cultural choices behind trying to design a ‘trilogy’ – however loosely unified – out of plays from different parts of Shakespeare’s career? The Royal Shakespeare Company are presenting The Comedy of Errors, Twelfth Night, or what you will, and The Tempest as ‘Shakespeare’s […]

The World Shakespeare Festival; a production of Love’s Labour’s Lost in Kabul; a production of The Comedy of Errors in the Globe to Globe season; Shakespeare’s ability to speak to the Afghan people; Rumi recited in Shakespeare’s Birthplace; an international conversation begins… About a month ago, I posted a blog about a new book, Shakespeare […]

‘The late afternoon air was unusually soft for Kabul, especially in the garden where we stood. It was a few days after Naw Ruz, the Zoroastrian New year that falls on the first day of spring. Almond trees were in bloom, and their delicate scent was complemented by an angled light sifting over a small […]

  Ten Shakespearian lines with which to open (or disband) a dinner party   “How say you to a fat tripe finely broiled?” (The Taming of the Shrew) * “Uncover, dogs, and lap” (Timon of Athens) * “Sit down and feed, and welcome to our table” (As You Like It) * “Each man to his […]

In my last blog, I considered how Good Friday influenced Shakespeare’s imagination. We are now properly in Eastertide (forty days from Easter Day) and it is not surprising that the Resurrection of Jesus (or ‘uprising’ as William Tyndale referred to it) made such a considerable impact on Shakespeare’s imagination. Shakespeare is not telling the Christian […]