Student reviews

In order to create an archive of the Shakespeare 400 activities that took place across all the partner organisations in 2016, a team of students at King's College London, from various disciplines and levels of study, reviewed as many of the events as possible. 

Below are all of the reviews. Use the search box to find reviews of a particular event.

Reviews by KateS Show all

  • Christopher Wheeldon's 'The Winter's Tale'

    Review by Gemma Miller, PhD Candidate in English Adapting one of Shakespeare’s most notoriously problematic plays into its first full-length ballet was a brave decision by choreographer Christopher Wheeldon. First staged in 2014, the idea arose out of a conversation with Nicholas Hytner, who was then artistic director at the National Theatre. Read more...

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  • Shakespeare in London

    Review by Ilaria Albani Every place has a past, but some places have more than a couple of fascinating stories to tell. In the heart of the City of London, near the glassy gigantic skyscrapers and the over-crowded station of Liverpool Street, there is the little church of St. Botolph-without-Bishopsgate. This church has witnessed the changes London underwent from the Middle Ages to the modern times and has always been connected to its literary life Read more...

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  • Original Pronunciation: Dr Faustus by Christopher Marlowe

    Review by Shehrazade Zafar-Arif, MA Shakespeare Studies, King’s College London Christopher Marlowe’s 'The Tragical History of the Life and Death of Doctor Faustus', or more commonly known as 'Doctor Faustus', follows the titular Faustus, a scholar who strikes a bargain with the devil in pursuit of knowledge and power. Read more...

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  • The Curtain and Crime: Rogues and Villains of Elizabethan Theatre Walk

    Review by Stefanie Jirsak, PhD candidate in Management Research London is full of hidden gems. And MOLA does an extraordinary job in unveiling them. Their current project: the excavation of London’s second playhouse ‘The Curtain’ from Shakespeare’s times, which was first mentioned in a religious pamphlet in 1577. This particular guided walk focussed on The Curtain and Crime. Approximately 20 people gathered on a Saturday afternoon on Hewett Street, Shoreditch, next to what is currently the excavation site of the former playhouse. Read more...

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  • ‘Playing the Curtain’ with Dr. Lucy Munro

    Review by Gemma Miller, PhD Candidate, English, KCL Amid the plethora of events marking the 400th anniversary of Shakespeare’s death, it is easy to forget that 2016 is also a significant year in the history of the Curtain Theatre. Built in 1576, it was one of the first permanent theatres to be constructed just outside the City of London in the liberties of Halliwell/Holywell in Shoreditch, London, and staged a number of key early modern plays between the 1570s and 1624, when it closed. Read more...

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  • Dr Emma Smith’s Talk on the First Folio

    Review by Yavanna Vanyari, MA Modern Foreign Language Education When the First Folio was published, Shakespeare was falling out of the limelight as younger writers took to creating and promoting their own theatrical forms. The Folio was published as a way to increase interest in Shakespeare’s work, but the publishers had no great expectations of profits. Rather, as Smith argues, they were on a sacred mission to help Shakespeare’s works become more famous. Read more...

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  • Shakespeare and Modernism, a Symposium

    Review by Xiaohui Guo, MA in Culture and Creative Industries For a one-day tour to explore 20th century approaches to Shakespeare, the Shakespeare and Modernism Symposium held by Barbican Centre on 30th April was definitely a good choice. Don’t be scared by the word symposium, it was not a formal meeting as the name indicates. Read more...

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  • The Complete Walk

    Review by Ingrid Penzhorn, MSc Neuroscience, Institute of Psychiatry, Psychology and Neuroscience (IoPPN) For the weekend of 23 and 24 April, Shakespeare’s Globe has transformed London’s Southbank into a Shakespeare showcase with 37 screens erected along the riverbank from Westminster to Tower Bridge. The outdoor screens feature short film depictions of all Shakespeare’s plays with each having been shot in the authentic mise en scène the Bard had in mind. Read more...

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  • '5 Hamlets'

    Review by Georgia Clarke, MA Classical Art and Archaeology The National Theatre’s ‘5 Hamlets’ exhibition documents five of its productions of ‘Hamlet’, spanning five decades. The exhibition shows the play’s adaptability and combines audio material with set models, costumes, and props to compare the five productions. Read more...

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