The Flip Side: Shakespeare Turns 400!

Shakespeare

This week in the world of theatre: Shakespeare turns 400!

Well technically, he turns 452. But having died 400 years ago, on April 23, 1616, his legacy turns 400. Can you imagine making contributions to the world so important that 400 years after your death people are still studying, re-interpreting, and learning from your work? How many people have had such an impact? Michelangelo, whoever wrote the Kama Sutra, Jesus maybe… Darwin and Einstein will probably get there, but they still have a couple hundred years to go. Overall, not many people reach the 400-year milestone. And so, 2016 is Shakespeare’s year, and all over the world theatres are staging adaptations of his plays to honour him and his everlasting influence on the world of English theatre. The New York Times lists some of the performances here.

Further performances celebrating Shakespeare are taking place in:

In other news:

  • Omar El-Khairy and Nadia Latif, respectively the writer and director of Homegrown, a play about the radicalization of young Muslims that was pulled from the National Youth Theatre in England, examine the good-Muslim/bad-Muslim debate.

And, to return to Shakespeare:

 


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Written By

Hannah works in casting, the only profession that allows her to truthfully use work as an excuse to stay home and watch TV. A dropout of both preschool and law school, she loves Montreal bagels, Harry Potter, and conversations about diversity. Her diet starts tomorrow.