STEVE ANDREW enjoys an account of the many communities that flourished independently of and in resistance to the empires of old
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Don't throw the baby out with the bathwater
GORDON PARSONS responds to Chris Jury's attack on the ‘Shakespeare cult’ in the Morning Star
Wider reach: The RSC is broadcasting its production of Macbeth in cinemas on April 11
TOM STONE urges you to catch the last dates of a New York singer/songwriter, never afraid to challenge her audiences musically or politically
JAN WOOLF examines work that aims to give viewers a material experience of the environments in the polar north and Britain equally affected by the climate crisis
The bard recalls advice received 50 years ago from his TRB muse, and sorts out appropriate legislation for football club ownership
MICHAL BONCZA and MARIA DUARTE review Facing War, Kontinental ’25, Bugonia, and Relay
MAYER WAKEFIELD is frustrated by a production of Ibsen’s classic study of an anti-heroine that fails to elucidate her motivations
PETER MASON tunes his ear into the domestic affairs of a Carribbean couple with a troublesome son
I ONCE heard a leading scholar argue that it was a shame that Shakespeare’s work had to be spoilt by stage performances, an attitude exemplifying the snobbery that Chris Jury describes in his recent demolition of the so-called Shakespeare cult in this newspaper.
Although academics can gain pleasure from examining the texts and preparing their erudite lectures, the plays were never meant to provide bewildering examination grist for generations of kids who mostly, as a consequence, will never wish to engage with Shakespeare again.
But, as any teacher who has experienced the excited involvement of a young audience enjoying a live modern production knows, the “difficulties” that make classroom textual studies a pain disappear as the language is brought to life through the chemistry of theatre.
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