Plays – moving in time

Photo taken from RSC Gallery Competition,Jennifer Hutchings: ‘The Tempest’ Out of the Book

http://www.rsc.org.uk/whats-on/exhibitions/my-rsc-gallery-public-winners.aspx

How can I tell you, the love I have for a dead man? Or rather, the love I have for the work of a dead man? Like millions of people from every part of our globe my life has been altered by the scribblings of a 16th century poet and playwright, we all know our language is steeped in his. I am ashamed how much I have been taking him for granted lately, in the way we all take our loved ones for granted, so I took an online tour and reacquainted myself with some of the resources available to discover his bounty. That’s what I want you to do with me. I want you take a tour too, to dive into some of this amazing resource which is all free!!!! What can you lose? A few minutes? If you know his work already it still offers fresh insights, and if you have never dared to unlock the door – well chum, here’s the keys, it’s all yours.

William Shakespeare ‘was not of an age, but for all time’ according to Ben Johnson. That was some critique given that Germaine Greer , renown academic, punctuates Ben Johnson’s remark with the observation that Shakespeare was more modest than Johnson ‘in every way’ . If you want to hear more from Germaine, amongst others then go to the BBC archives of In Our Time and link here http://www.bbc.co.uk/iplayer/console/p00546s8

For a more dynamic approach the British Museum are staging an exhibition and if you can’t make it , the website is worth a visit, the short video is a performance in itself. If you don’t try any of the other links, try this one!

http://www.britishmuseum.org/whats_on/exhibitions/shakespeare_staging_the_world.aspx

I hope you did. Now you might want to go even further and check this website out. It is packed full of stuff people are doing and reading and getting excited about, all down to our friend Will. There’s even a free book you can download, WOW! ( Another tip, the Sally Vickers talk is worth hearing)

http://bloggingshakespeare.com/

One of the greatest aspects of the bard is his psychological insight into the human condition. This was before we had all heard of Freud and Jung and CBT. He is just a brilliant observer of men and women and the interplay between them. We all know of the tragedy Romeo and Juliet; Juliet was fourteen when she fell under the spell of lurve, and he got the pitch spot on. Before Juliet’s speech, we hear the rubbish spouted from the adults ( her mother in particular!! ) The language transforms when Juliet speaks about her feelings. It is another dimension altogether. Isn’t that the way? Love transforms us all, the world is brighter, colours deeper, people kinder. I won’t go on. As always here in the UK, our trusted BBC come up trumps and there are links galore to frolic around here

http://www.bbc.co.uk/arts/shakespeare/

We can see just on this tiny level that one man can influence generations of thinkers, artists, players, inspiring artworks and performances across the whole world. Wondrous!