Farewell! Thou art too dear for my possessing …

For the first time in nearly 20 years, a complete First Folio of Shakespeare's plays is to be auctioned on 24 April, and is expected to fetch between $4m and $6m. First Folios – the first collected editions of 36 of Shakespeare's plays, are relatively few in number, with the majority held by public institutions (the British Library owns 5) and only 6 thought to be in private hands. Unusually, this edition is being sold by a cash-strapped Californian college along with an original manuscript by Mozart, in response to what they referred to as a ‘financial emergency’.

The First Folios were published at the instigation of two of the bard's actor contemporaries seven years after his death, in 1623. It has been posited as a suggestion that discrepancies between these texts and later editions come of the fact that the actors in question reported chunks of the plays from memory – and it would also have added to the complication that full copies of the plays would not usually have been written, with each actor receiving instead only their own part: a practice which is lampooned in A Midsummer Night's Dream when the Mechanicals rehearse their play. Several plays which would otherwise have been lost to history were put in print for the fi rst time in the First Folio. If you've some spare funds in your drama department budget, why not consider a special acquisition for the library?!

© CESARE DE GIGLIO

A poor player that struts and frets his hour upon the stage …

Full casting has been announced for Shakespeare's Globe's 2020 Playing Shakespeare with Deutsche Bank production – a 90-minute Macbeth to be directed by Cressida Brown and running from 26 February to 25 March. 18,000 free tickets were allocated to state secondary schools in London and Birmingham in just one day, with thousands more students from paying schools expected also to watch the production over the course of its run. ‘Macbeth asks us to consider what makes a tyrant,’ says Brown, ‘What cocktail of political poison, ambition and fear corrupts and divides a nation?’ …All too current a collection of questions for a play which fi rst explored them over 400 years ago.

Workshops for students in schools across the country, and CPD for teachers, will run alongside the production, with free online resources also available to support GCSE and A Level curricula. The cast includes some recent drama school graduates and stars Ekow Quartey as Macbeth and Elly Condron as Lady Macbeth.

Book by calling 020 7401 9919 or visit www.shakespearesglobe.comLeft: Last year's Playing Shakespeare with Deutsche Bank production was a 90-mintue cut of Romeo and Juliet

Here's neither bush nor shrub to bear off any weather at all…

© JAMES MORRIS
Audiences gather at the Dell for a production of Much Ado About Nothing

The Royal Shakespeare Company has opened applications for amateur and semi-professional theatre groups, schools and colleges to mount a play written or inspired by Shakespeare at The Dell, its annual outdoor performance space on the banks of the river Avon behind its theatre building.

In its 13th year, The Dell provides a space for groups to perform on Saturdays and Sundays throughout the summer. If you are interested in taking a group to perform, download The Dell 2020 Guidance Notes and Application Form, which are available from the RSC's website www.rsc.org.uk/thedell

The closing date for applications is Monday 24 February 2020.

But mad North-North-West …

On 15 January, an event in parliament brought key fi gures from the theatre and arts worlds together with politicians to lend support to the new Shakespeare North Playhouse, due to open in Prescot in 2022.

Among the guests was Dame Judi Dench, Patron of the Shakespeare North Trust, who said ‘As a longstanding supporter of this project, I am thrilled to see such positive progress being made and the support that is clearly evident.’

‘It is no secret that I am absolutely passionate about Shakespeare and his work and the idea of bringing this love of language to a new generation and to communities in the north of England is something I am completely behind. My own career was inspired by visits to the theatre in Stratford-upon-Avon as a child and I think it is wonderful to imagine today's young people being inspired in the same way. This project will be much more than ‘just’ a theatre and its impact will be seen for generations to come. I am thrilled to be able to support it.’

The flexible 320 to 380-seat Playhouse, modelled on the cockpit-in-court design of the 17th century, has been pitched to complete a ‘Shakespearean Triangle’ of London, Stratford-Upon-Avon and Prescot. The Playhouse is expected to attract more than 140,000 visitors each year, injecting £10 million into the local economy.