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World Shakespeare Festival Launched
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The World Shakespeare Festival was launched at the British Museum yesterday as part of next year’s Cultural Olympiad which will run alongside the London 2012 Olympic Games. More than 50 arts organisations and thousands of performers will come together around the country to produce nearly 70 productions between April and November 2012. Highlights include Simon Russell Beale playing the title role in Timon Of Athens at the National Theatre, Jonathan Pryce starring as ‘King Lear’ at the Almeida theatre and Meera Syal appearing as ‘Beatrice’ in an India-set production of Much Ado About Nothing in Stratford-upon-Avon. |
Our Greatest Cultural ExportSpeaking about the ambitious project, London Mayor Boris Johnson said: “William Shakespeare is our greatest cultural export, and is quite rightly considered to be the finest writer of all time. His work – written when this country was a boom nation leading trade around the globe and setting the foundations for modern England – is still just as relevant now as it was almost 500 years ago. This festival is a fantastic opportunity for these fine works to be brought to a new generation of schoolchildren, while at the same time reminding existing fans of Shakespeare's unparalleled insights into the workings of the human heart.” The Emergence of London |
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The British Museum will also host an exhibition, ‘Shakespeare: Staging the World’, which will provide a unique insight into the emerging role of London as a world city, as seen through some of Shakespeare’s best-known plays. The exhibition, which runs from 19th July to the 25th November 2012, will be produced in collaboration with the Royal Shakespeare Company (RSC) and is sponsored by the British oil company BP. |
The Most International of ArtistsSpeaking about the project, Michael Boyd, Artistic Director of the RSC said: “Shakespeare is no longer English property. He is the favourite playwright and artist of the whole world and studied at school by half the world’s children. People of all races, creeds and continents have chosen to gather around his work to share stories of what it is like to be human. To fall in love or fall from grace. To be subject to the abuse of power or to live with the dreams of angels in the shadow of our own mortality. The World Shakespeare Festival celebrates this most international of artists at a time when the eyes of the world will be on London, that most international of cities, for the Olympic Games.” More than one million tickets will go on sale for Shakespeare productions across London and the UK on Monday 10th October 2011. More information about the events can be found on the World Shakespeare Festival Website here. |
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