#shakespeare for a modern take on the Bard
NEXT week is the 400th anniversary of Shakespeare’s death and while it might seem strange to highlight the end of the great man’s life (shouldn’t we be celebrating his entrance on to life’s stage rather than his exit?) there are some exciting events on television, radio and film to mark the date.
The BBC is getting particularly excited by the whole thing and as well as a new version of A Midsummer Night’s Dream by Russell T Davies (there’s probably no other play that better fits RTD’s science function sensibilities) and more of the perfect Hollow Crown (this time with Dame Judi Dench), the highlight looks like Shakespeare Live on April 23.
Presented by David Tennant and featuring among others Dame Judi, Dame Helen Mirren, Rory Kinnear, David Suchet, Simon Russell Beale, Antony Sher, Anne Marie Duff, and the cast of Horrible Histories, it’s essentially the Royal Variety Performance if Shakespeare had been alive to write it.
Broadcast live from the Royal Shakespeare Theatre, it will feature work that is inspired by the Bard but spans the musical genres – including hip-hop, blues, jazz and opera. It opens with a rendition of Tonight from the stage musical West Side Story, which was inspired by Romeo and Juliet.
Also on the bill is country duo The Shires performing an interpretation of Shakespeare’s poem Under The Greenwood Tree, Henry Goodman and Rufus Hound doing their own rendition of Brush Up Your Shakespeare from the musical Kiss Me Kate, and the Midlands Youth Jazz Orchestra performing Duke Ellington’s Such Sweet Thunder.
There are some fascinating musicals spins on Shakespeare too: Rufus Wainwright will sing Sonnet 29; there will be a performance by the jazz/soul star Gregory Porter singing When That I Was and A Little Tiny Boy; and there will be a rendition of Come Away, Death from Ian Bostridge accompanied by Sir Antonio Pappano, recorded at the Holy Trinity Church in Stratfordupon-Avon, where Shakespeare is buried.
Cinema will also be joining the celebrations, as Shakespeare Live will be screened live to 368 cinemas. The GFT also has a number of screenings tied in to the anniversary, perhaps the most enticing of which is a showing, on April 28, of Sir Ian McKellen’s Richard III followed by a Q&A with Sir Ian.
And – of course – there is a digital dimension to the celebrations, and the most inventive idea is the launch this week of an app aimed at getting young people interested in Shakespeare and his language.
The app is essentially a quotation generator but the twist is that it will present lines of Shakespeare to match the emotions of users, which they will express using emojis that reflect how they are feeling. There are quotations from 36 of Shakespeare’s plays and two sonnets ranging from Romeo and Juliet and Macbeth to Coriolanus and Cymbeline and in total there are 269 quotations to be discovered.
It may not be the most dignified way to celebrate Shakespeare, but the great populist would probably understand. ShakespeareMe can be found at bbc.co.uk/shakespeareme
‘‘ The most inventive idea is the launch of an app aimed at getting young people interested in Shakespeare and his language