Shakespeare: Greatest living playwright

Magical small exhibition at the Victoria and Albert Museum looking at how Shakespeare’s plays have been performed down the ages.

The star of the show was a video installation in a pagoda in the middle of the room with a fascinating film of modern actors, directors and designers talking about how they approach the plays. While you watched you realised that set into one side of the pagoda was a copy of the First Folio and around you were things like Henry Irvin’s shoes in which he played Richard III, tickets issue by Garrick to an anniversary show, Ellen Terry’s Desdemona handkerchief and much more.

There weren’t a lot of things in this show but what there these were the right things. Adding the voices of contemporary actors was the best way of showing the power that Shakespeare still has.

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