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 Andrew Home, MA in Philosophy It is surely the assumption of many that the works of Shakespeare received swift translation upon their success. Britain’s closest European neighbours must have heard some rumour of his success and clamoured for a translation into their native tongue. Read more...
Review by Jamie Weisz, MA Early Modern History “If you want to learn about current affairs, go and see a Shakespeare history play.” This was the advice James Wright, resident Built Heritage Specialist with the Museum of London Archaeology team, told us before his talk on Shakespeare’s revered historical play, Henry V. As part of MOLA’s Shakespeare 400 events programme, Wright unpicked the history behind the play, both in terms of its historic content and the context in which it was written. Read more...
Review by Daniela Tejada, MA Arts & Cultural Management The reading of “The Devil is an Ass”, part of the Read Not Dead series at Shakespeare’s Globe, plays homage to the debut of Ben Jonson’s play, which is thought to have taken place four hundred years ago following Shakespeare’s death. 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...
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 Gemma Miller, PhD Candidate, English This exciting exhibition looks at ten landmark performances across the 400-year history of Shakespeare’s plays, from the first stagings of Hamlet in 1600 at the newly-constructed Globe theatre to the Wooster Group’s postmodern, multi-media pastiche of Hamlet at the Edinburgh Festival in 2013. Read more...
Review by Daniela Tejada-Venegas, MA Arts and Cultural Management. A landmark exhibition on the performances that made an icon, charting Shakespeare’s constant reinvention across the centuries. Over 200 unique and rare items such as the only surviving play-script in Shakespeare’s hand. Read more...
Review by Richard Foord, MA Renaissance Literature. A series of rare and silent Shakespeare films from the dawn of cinema. 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...
