Still Will

Synopsis: Radio series showcasing feature reports and discussions on cultural subjects. For a poet and playwright whose virtuosic way with words continue to dominate English literature, there’s an extraordinary and often overlooked potency also in his silences, stillness and quietness. Laura Barton listens closely to the spaces between Shakespeare’s words and explores the acoustic qualities of the circumstances in which they were performed. She talks with the actor Niamh Cusack, who’s played Desdemona and Juliet in large theatres and, most recently, Paulina in The Winter’s Tale at the intimate Sam Wanamaker Playhouse. Acoustician Byron Harrison imagines the soundworld inhabited by actors on the Elizabethan stage and unpicks the science of theatre design. Shakespeare scholar Lesel Dawson reads the plays for moments of silent wonder, resistance, horror and narrative tension and Steven Connor considers how Shakespeare communicates ‘beyond words’ - looking with ears, hearing with eyes.
Series: Sunday Feature
Language: English
Country: Great Britain
Medium: Radio
Transmission details: 1 May 2016 at 18:45 (Channel: BBC Radio 3)
Duration: 45 mins

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