Shakespeare Beyond London

Synopsis: Five young scholars re-evaluate the playwrights work. The final programme is delivered by Siobhan Keenan, Reader in Shakespeare and Renaissance Literature at De Montfort University. Shakespeare’s Globe Theatre on the South Bank gives such emphasis to productions of Shakespeare’s plays in his own day, that it’s easy to forget they were also performed far beyond London. Keenan sets out to explain how Shakespeare and his fellow actors regularly toured the country, performing in spaces ranging from town halls and churches to large country houses. She sheds light on why most of Shakespeare’s plays were designed so that they could be performed anywhere - with call for few props and little scenery - in order to reveal the importance of touring to his career, and the emergence of Shakespeare as a cultural icon in Elizabethan and Jacobean England - and beyond.
Series: Essay: Shakespeare 400, The
Language: English
Country: Great Britain
Medium: Radio
Transmission details: 29 Apr 2016 at 22:45 (Channel: BBC Radio 3)
Duration: 15 mins

Production type: Documentary/Educational/News
Plays: King Lear
Subjects: Drama
Keywords: Shakespeare, William (1564-1616); Elizabethan stage; Touring productions

General: The series was recorded in front of an audience in Shakespeare’s old classroom at the Guildhall in Stratford-upon-Avon.

SHAKESPEARE