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 Nina Romancikova, MA Shakespeare Studies. The 1616 celebrations of Cervantes' influence on English drama concluded with this witty and raucously funny play inspired by Don Quixote. Part of the Read Not Dead: 1616 staged reading series. Read more...
Review by Dan Rubins, MA Shakespeare Studies. Antony Sher plays King Lear, one of the greatest parts written by Shakespeare in this, one of Shakespeare’s most epic and powerful plays. Read more...
Review by Shehrazade Zafar-Arif, MA Shakespeare Studies. One can read King Lear countless times and pick out a new central, driving theme each time. The theme Michael Kantor picked was land. It was prevalent in the sand that covered the stage of the Barbican, imported from Australia, where the production originates. Read more...
Review by Margot Cadic, BA European Studies. Lucie Skeaping, presenter at BBC Radio Three's Early Music Show, co-author of Singing Simpkin and Other Bawdy Jigs, and director of The City Waites, performed with a troop of fellow actors and musicians two short 17th century musical comedies Read more...
Review by Natalia Fantetti, BA English. In Fletcher’s rarely performed tragicomedy, first staged in 1616, two young women adopt male disguises in the hope of pursuing their mutual love. Part of the Read Not Dead: 1616 staged reading series. Read more...
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...
Review by Ruth Beddow. I watched Christopher Wheeldon’s adaptation of Shakespeare’s most curious play from a poor seat in the upper slips at the Royal Opera House, and it was still mesmerising. Read more...
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...
Review by Rebecca Watson, MA Shakespeare Studies Just last year, the RSC staged what they called the 'Kings and Country' history cycle of Shakespeare’s history plays, covering the deposition of Richard II to the rise and success of Henry V. Now Ivo van Hove’s dazzling four-and-a-half hour Dutch production, Kings of War, covers the next generation of rulers Read more...
Review by Natalia Fantetti, BA English. Part of a nationwide tour, this production combined eighteen RSC professional actors and fourteen amateur theatre companies from around the UK. Read more...
