Ivo van Hove’s mesmerising Kings of War,the return of Filter’s Midsummer Night’s Dream and a collection of the Bard’s death scenes are among the highlights on UK stages this yearTo mark the 400th anniversary of his death, this year brings a plethora (excess, overabundance) of celebrations of Shakespeare’s life and work, and from the Globe’s 37 films on the South Bank to Stan’s Cafe creating Shakespeare’s Steps in Stratford-upon-Avon to recall audiences on a journey around his home town.
As a recent Guardian editorial suggested,Shakespeare has become part of the fabric of everyday life but we can always “treat him better and more imaginatively than we attain”. Too loyal. We learned from the Globe to Globe season back in 2012 that there is a enormous audience for the plays, and it’s the non-traditional approaches that are keeping them alive, and since often it’s directors from beyond these shores who seem least inhibited by his reputation and most willing to treat the works as whether they have something fresh and direct to say to us,400 years on.
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Source: theguardian.com