’Tis not enough to help the feeble up, but to support them after
Shakespeare Birthplace Trust has received its largest-ever private donation in its 177-year history, thanks to the generosity of the Olivier Award-winning US playwright Ken Ludwig. The funds will go towards the conservation of Hall's Croft, the former home of Shakespeare's daughter Susanna.
Ludwig is best known for his Broadway show, Crazy For You, an original musical drawing on the catalogue of George and Ira Gershwin. His first play, Lend Me a Tenor, launched his career and won him two Tony Awards in 1989. This is his first substantial donation; Ludwig was inspired to help after being shown round the building by one of the Trust's directors, who explained the dire state of the site. ‘It's what's needed right now to keep the place upright,’ he told the Guardian.
I have a man's mind, but a woman's might…
Author Jodi Picoult has long complained that her work has suffered from sexism, and were she a man, she might have received greater accolades, rather than being dismissed as ‘chick lit’ or ‘beach reads’. Addressing this issue through literature, Picoult's latest novel By Any Other Name casts Emilia Bassano as the author of Shakespeare's work. Bassano was the first woman in England to publish a book of original poetry, and Picoult ponders whether she should be credited for the playwright's works. ‘Her life intersected remarkably with many of the plays attributed to Shakespeare,’ she told Penguin. ‘Emilia's work wasn't published until 1611, when she was in her forties. But writers do not appear out of nowhere: what if she was writing all along, and using someone else's name… What if that name was Shakespeare?’
The fringed curtains of thine eye advance
The stage on which Romeo and Juliet and Henry V are believed to have been first performed is set to be unveiled in Shoreditch, East London. The foundations of the Curtain Theatre stage, where Shakespeare's company of actors were based between 1597 and 1599, lie some three metres below ground. The Museum of Shakespeare is due to open on the site, with visitors able to stand on the very same spot as the Bard himself. Although Shakespeare has connections with several other London playhouses, this will be the only place where visitors can share the same stage on which Shakespeare performed.
The theatre was unearthed in 2012 by experts from the Museum of London Archaeology (MOLA). It is believed to have been built in 1577, but fell into disuse in the late 1620s. It was found just a few hundred metres from another theatre further along Curtain Road, named the Theatre, whose foundations were uncovered several years earlier by the MOLA in 2008.
The game was ne’er so fair, and I am done
Video game Grand Theft Auto might be a modern Shakespearean masterpiece in and of itself, but you may not expect to see its players to perform his works inside it. Grand Theft Hamlet is a new documentary that tells the story of two actors – Sam Crane and Mark Oosterveen – who decided to stage a performance of Hamlet in the open-world game GTA 5 during the Covid lockdowns in 2021. It reveals their attempts to get people to pay attention to their performance, while dodging fire.
The film has had some recognition at film festivals, and streaming platform Mubi has recently picked up the rights to it so it may be available soon.