Despite having forever changed English life, language and culture, at home and abroad, Shakespeare remains an enigma. His work is a mirror on which we can reflect themes of love and hate, war and peace, freedom and tyranny, but the man himself is mysterious. After 400 years, such magical invisibility makes him more than ever godlike.
With it being the 400th anniversary of Shakespeare’s death this week, and the main celebrations taking place on April 23, I’ll be linking to a number of articles about the wonderful playwright.
So many people think that Shakespeare is inaccessible, then they see a play well performed, and understand. My friend Rob Griffiths visited for a couple of days this weekend, and the timing was such that he could see The Royal Shakespeare Company’s new production of Hamlet. Rob had said to me, many times, that he would never understand Shakespeare, because of the language, but he was totally absorbed by the spectacle and went away understanding just how powerful this play can be. If he can appreciate Shakespeare, anyone can. 🙂
I’m sure we’ll talk about it on next week’s episode of The Committed Podcast.
Source: Ten ways in which Shakespeare changed the world | Culture | The Guardian