Bardwatching: Autumn Term 1 2021-22

The groundlings, who for the most part are capable of nothing but inexplicable dumb shows and noise…

Shakespeare's Globe has reopened its yard to groundlings with their popular £5 tickets, now that social distancing regulations have been reduced – with the number of tickets increasing incrementally to a capacity of 400 groundling tickets available for each performance by the end of August.

In keeping with the lifting of restrictions, guided tours of the theatre are also back in action – with family guided tours offered to those with children aged 7-11 years old. Meanwhile, elsewhere in the Globe's offering for young people, Lucy Cuthbertson and Professor Farah Karim-Cooper have been formally announced as the new co-directors of education. Having been joint interim leaders throughout the Globe's year of closure, creating hundreds of events and courses, and supporting the sudden critical need for home-learning, they take on the position after Patrick Spotiswoode – who served as the director and founder of Globe Education for 37 years – confirmed his retirement last summer.

Shakespeare's Globe has commented on the appointments that ‘Beyond their years of experience, it's wonderful to see a woman of colour and a lesbian as leaders in a major cultural institution.’ www.shakespearesglobe.com

What's past is prologue

The BBC Shakespeare Archive Resource has been moved to a new permanent home with the Educational Recordings Agency, ERA. At the same time, hundreds of new programmes and performances have been added, bringing the site up to date, and improving the resource, which D&T will review in a forthcoming issue. New programming will be added on a regular basis, however the collection of stills images formerly available through the BBC are not available on the ERA site.

To gain access, teachers must register at era.org.uk/registration – or contact shakespeare@era.org.uk for more information about access.

ERA supports the education sector by making it easy for schools, colleges and universities to harness the power of audio-visual broadcast material for non-commercial educational purposes through provision of their licence. The ERA Licence enables educational establishments to legally make recordings or copies of TV and radio programmes for educational use.

In addition to the BBC Shakespeare Archive, ERA have produced a collection of classroom-ready resources for licensees to use, including 5000+ curated clips linked to key curriculum areas, themed playlists, subject collections and more. www.era.org.uk/shakespeare-archive

The old folk, time's doting chronicles…

Reviews are out for the age-blind Hamlet performed at the Theatre Royal Windsor this summer, with Ian McKellan in the titular role at the age of 82 – fifty years since he last performed it. A few critics have been somewhat bemused by the production and some of its directorial decisions, but all have been thrilled by McKellan's performance. ‘“Hamlet is Shakespeare, is youth,” wrote Virginia Woolf, but McKellen proves her wrong,’ writes Arifa Akbar in The Guardian, ‘His prince is sad without self-indulgence, his reflections an acceptance of impending mortality. He is sprightly, delivering a fast, physical performance, but trembles and bursts into tender, old man's tears too,’ while Nick Curtis in the Evening Standard writes: ‘Ian McKellen's age-defying Hamlet is a sensation in every sense of the word.’

I was training in Bristol when Tom Morris directed 76-year-old Siân Phillips and 66-year-old Michael Byrne in the titular roles of Romeo and Juliet at the Bristol Old Vic, and was able to see Dudley Sutton's Mercutio deliver his slow and touching Queen Mab speech – it was certainly an interesting way to see the play, completely altering the perspective on certain aspects but ultimately, I felt, reducing its tragedy. This is, however, a good topic for discussion with students – Shakespeare has been done in countless ‘new’ ways and ultimately the humanity in the text (nearly) always wins through. How could ideas about age-blind, gender-blind and colour-blind casting inspire your students and their approaches to Shakespeare's works?