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.
Review by Jenna Byers, PhD candidate, History. ‘Othello’ is one of Shakespeare’s more thought-provoking plays, in that it very clearly demonstrates an attitude which modern society deems entirely inappropriate, but which would have been perfectly acceptable to Shakespeare’s contemporaries in the fifteenth century. Read more...
Review by Margot Cadic, BA European Studies. Introduced on the 15th April 2016, the exhibition Shakespeare in Ten Acts was displayed until the 6th September 2016 at the British Library. The exhibition defines itself as a journey through 400 years of theatre history, whilst maintaining as focal theme the exploration of ten performances of William Shakespeare’s work. Read more...
Review by Cara Rodrigues, MSc Neuroscience. The London Philharmonic Orchestra performed excerpts of Prokofiev’s Romeo and Juliet with a faithful execution; however the first half of the performance became lengthy and lacklustre, giving the feeling of an unwise choice in excerpts to open. Read more...
Review by Romola Nuttall, PhD student, Early Modern English Literature. In this well-attended talk, Michael Wood takes his audience back to the rural Warwickshire of Shakespeare’s grandparents and parents. Read more...
Review by Gemma Miller, PhD candidate in English The Winter’s Tale is undergoing a revival on the stages of London at the moment. The Kenneth Branagh Company’s award-winning production has recently completed its run at the Garrick Theatre; The Sam Wanamaker production, directed by Michael Longhurst, is currently entering its fourteenth week; Read more...
Review by Eleanor Fox, BMus, Music, AKC. This was the first of a series of talks organized by The Museum of London Archaeology (MOLA), which aims to demonstrate the historical significance of Shoreditch in the early modern period. Read more...
Review by Yianna Theodorou, English and Film BA. The evening’s screening of Forbidden Planet was introduced by members of the Faculty of Natural and Mathematical Sciences with a keen interest to prove their department held an interest in the arts, and did not simply run on numbers and tests. Set in a distant future, yet based on Shakespeare’s The Tempest... Read more...
Review by Shehrazade Zafar-Arif, MA Shakespeare Studies. A cold, rainy Saturday evening was no time to be outside, and yet Guildhall Yard was filled to the brim with people, huddling together for warmth as they looked up expectantly at the beautiful old building. Read more...
Review by Daniela Tejada-Venegas, MA Arts & Cultural Management. Bringing light to the Guildhall Yard, which lies upon the city’s Roman amphitheatre and holds Shakespeare’s deed and one of the world’s finest exemplars of the First Folio, Shakespeare Son et Lumiere reimagined this little historical urban gem Read more...
Review by Danny Shanahan, BA Comparative Literature. What one found when entering the Barbican’s basement theatre space to see Hamlet was not Benedict Cumberbatch. Nor did one find an elaborate set, with mechanical moving parts, wind and fog machines, or even a single solitary strobe light. Read more...
