Shakespeare

Shakespeare wrote in the Elizabethan and Jacobean period, at the height of the Renaissance, and lived between 1564 and 1616. He was a playwright and poet and wrote countless pieces, and was possibly the most influential and well-known artist of all time - he requires very little of an introduction for most. He wrote tragedies, comedies, and sonnets, and was living at the same time as other important playwrights such as Christopher Marlowe (who wrote 'Doctor Faustus'), Thomas Middleton (who wrote plays like 'The Changeling') and John Webster (who write 'The Duchess of Malfi'). Shakespeare himself wrote some of the most famous plays of all times, from which plots and characters have been reinvented to this day, such as 'Macbeth,' 'Romeo and Juliet,' and 'A Midsummer Night's Dream.' 

Shakespeare was also influenced by many sources, such as stock characters, other playwrights and poets. Traditional Commedia dell'Arte characters appeared within his plays when a character needed to be deliberately exaggerated and unrealistic, or designed to satirise something. Shylock from 'A Merchant of Venice' is clearly modelled on the old miser, Pantalone, and Puck from 'A Midsummer Night's Dream' could be a Satiro, a demon-trickster. Marlowe was a also a huge influence and the most well-known playwright before Shakespeare, but unfortunately died at only 23. He pioneered blank verse, which is used in every Shakespeare play, usually in the form of iambic pentameter, also well as portraying more complex tragic characters on stage - Shakespeare himself was famous for his Great Tragedies, with characters like Macbeth. Shakespeare also drew ideas from the essays of Michel de Montaigne amongst others, and poets like Petrarch (the Italian poet who perfected the sonnet form and theme of love Shakespeare is so famous for, as in 'Shall I compare thee to a Summer's day?'), as well as English poets Sir Philip Sidney and Edmund Spenser, favourites of Queen Elizabeth I. Roman poet Ovid also inspired Shakespeare - the story of the lovers, Pyramus and Thisbe is believed to be echoed in 'A Midsummer Night's Dream' and 'Romeo and Juliet.'

Shakespeare shaped the world as we know it today. He expanded on the dramatic potential of characterisation, plot, language and genre, popularised blank verse in plays, and was the first to use soliloquies to show the mind and thoughts of a character. Music, dance, art, poetry, literature and theatre all take ideas from Shakespeare. Countless of his plays have been revived and changed over the years because of their powerful stories and themes. Freud drew on Shakespearean psychology, in particular Hamlet's theories on human nature. Prokofiev and Verdi created ballets and operas from the stories and characters, with over 20,000 more pieces of music believed to have been influenced by Shakespeare. Even Dickens took from him. He changed language more than any individual ever had - because of the unstandardised rules of spelling and grammar his use of language shaped how we speak today, and he invented countless words and expressions. He is also the third most translated author in history with wide reception in Germany, Italy, and Russia to name a few countries. His influence spans hundreds of years and thousands of miles, and his work is as relevant today as it was in the 17th century.

Shakespeare was a member of the King's Men, sponsored by King James I of England (VI of Scotland) and performed his plays at the Globe Theatre.

HOW TO PLAY SHAKESPEARE

Shakespeare's old-fashioned language and a verse form that many of us today are unfamiliar with in theatre can make it seem difficult to perform. However actors have ways to counteract this to aid their understanding of the text and to improve their performance. 

When actors first receive a text, they can translate each line into a modern-day English phrase to better understand the true meaning of the line. Then the actor can perform the scene, using their modern-day translation as the lines. Then the actor will perform the same scene using the true Shakespearean lines. The intermediate rehearsal section is vital as it helps the actor to understand the emotion and thought behind the line by making it understandable. Many perform Shakespeare as poetry and without character because of the archaic language, or default to using a received pronunciation English accent - this however shouldn't be the case. Many of Shakespeare's characters were of lower classes or other nationalities, and obviously had complex thoughts that we might not be able to see.

Baz Luhrmann's film version of Romeo and Juliet, 1996, is a perfect example of the eternal relevance of Shakespeare. The story is set 'in fair Verona, where we lay our scene,' and portrays the Montagues and Capulets as two separate businesses or gangs ran by the families, with swords being replaced with guns and the action being in a modern city. It shows how the themes of Shakespeare's plays will always be relevant.