Will Power

As you probably know, it's Shakespeare's birthday (and the day he died)

I consider myself fairly easy-going, everyone's tastes are different, whatever floats your boat etc. etc.

But I have to confess that I can't, for the life of me, understand how anyone doesn't 'get' Shakespeare'

As far as I'm concerned he's the Man. Possibly the greatest writer ever and maybe the greatest Englishman.

The problem, perhaps is that too many people read the plays, rather than seeing them. He didn't write them to be studied and analysed. He wrote them to be performed. His audience were people off the street who'd watch King Lear or Othello stood in the crowd with a bottle of booze in one hand and a whore in the other. It would have been vibrant, raucous and exciting. More like a rock gig than a theatre performance as we know it.

I've been fortunate enough, over the years to see some amazing Shakespeare on stage. When you hear an actor who really can do the text, it lifts you. The power of the language is literally magic.

Here's Jacobi doing the prologue from Henry V. It doesn't get much better than this.



I also like the sonnets. Here's a good take on sonnet 29:




Finally, some advice:



Go to it!