Culture in Quarantine: Shakespeare

As members of the feuding Capulet and Montague families, Romeo and Juliet should be sworn enemies, but they fall deeply in love and marry in secret. That very day, disastrous circumstances lead Romeo to fight and kill Juliet's cousin Tybalt, setting off a chain of events that culminate in tragedy. Juliet takes a potion to avoid the love match her parents have set up for her, and Romeo, believing she is dead, poisons himself. When she wakes from her deep sleep, Juliet finds the body of her love and is so distraught that she stabs herself, joining him in death. Romeo and Juliet is a drama feature film shot on location in Hungary, starring the dancers of the Royal Ballet in Sir Kenneth MacMillan’s classic ballet. The film is set to Sergei Prokofiev’s original score for Romeo and Juliet, and is unique in telling this classic story through dance. The score was adapted especially for the film. It was recorded at AIR Studios in Hampstead, London, with the Orchestra of the Royal Opera House, in early 2019. The 85 players were conducted by the renowned Royal Opera House music director Koen Kessels, and the leader was Vasko Vassilev. Highlighting the essence of MacMillan’s original choreography, Michael Nunn and William Trevitt’s Romeo and Juliet takes viewers into the action with a striking intimacy. Through detailed portrayals by the Royal Ballet dancers, the film is a gripping story about real characters through an audacious experience that is by turn epic and intimate. With the story presented in a groundbreaking new light, the film captures the extraordinary performances that have earned the Royal Ballet the reputation of producing the greatest actor-dancers in the world. Seizing the opportunity to perform scenes with unparalleled subtlety, the dancers’ artistry pays tribute to what is internationally recognised as the zenith of the dance storytelling. Reimagined for the camera by the International Emmy Award winners Michael Nunn and William Trevitt, the film deliv

Sent by the ghost of his father to avenge his brutal death, Hamlet’s mission to expose the truth is a perilous journey of madness, murder and lost love. What will ultimately become of a young man sent to kill? Paapa Essiedu plays Hamlet in Simon Godwin’s critically acclaimed 2016 Royal Shakespeare Company production.

Shakespeare’s darkest psychological thriller. Returning home from battle, the victorious Macbeth meets three witches on the heath. Driven by their disturbing prophecies, he sets out on the path to murder. The 2018 Royal Shakespeare Company production directed by Polly Findlay features Christopher Eccleston as Macbeth and Niamh Cusack as Lady Macbeth.

What if your first true love was someone you’d been told to hate? Ripped apart by the bitter divisions of their parents, two young people will risk everything to be together. Erica Whyman directs the 2018 Royal Shakespeare Company production of Shakespeare’s most famous story of love at first sight.

In the melting pot of Venice, trade is God. When the gold is flowing all is well - but when a contract between Bassanio and Shylock is broken, simmering racial tensions boil over. A wronged father, and despised outsider, Shylock looks to exact the ultimate price for a deal sealed in blood. Polly Findlay directs this Royal Shakespeare Company production of Shakespeare’s uncompromising play with Makram J. Khoury as Shylock, Patsy Ferran as Portia and Jamie Ballard as Antonio.

Othello is the greatest general of his age. But he is also an outsider whose victories have created enemies of his own. As they plot in the shadows, Othello realises too late that the greatest danger lies not in the hatred of others, but his own fragile and destructive pride. With Hugh Quarshie as Othello and Joanna Vanderham as Desdemona, Iqbal Khan’s ground-breaking 2015 production was the first by the Royal Shakespeare Company to cast a black actor, Lucian Msamati, as Iago.

Autumn 1918. A group of soldiers return from the trenches. The world-weary Benedick and his friend Claudio find themselves reacquainted with Beatrice and Hero. As memories of conflict give way to a life of parties and masked balls, Claudio and Hero fall madly, deeply in love, while Benedick and Beatrice reignite their own altogether more combative courtship. Christopher Luscombe directs Michelle Terry and Edward Bennett as Beatrice and Benedick in this acclaimed Royal Shakespeare Company production.

From Shakespeare’s Globe in London, this was the final night of the Bollywood-infused Shakespeare comedy. It was the first production to be streamed live from the Bankside venue and is introduced by actress Meera Syal. Four runaway lovers find themselves smack bang in the middle of a dispute between the King and Queen of the fairies and, as if that wasn’t enough, a troupe of amateur actors are trying to rehearse a play. Between these unlikely groups flies Puck, armed only with a wicked sense of humour and a love potion capable of making anyone fall for the first person they set eyes upon. What could possibly go wrong? Fusing music, dance and some serious comedy, Emma Rice's Dream is naughty, tender, transgressive and surprising - a real festival of theatre.

With a spirit of the supernatural, The Tempest is a story of forgiveness, generosity and enlightenments set on a remote and mysterious desert island. With enchantments and treachery at every turn, will anyone ever make it off? Roger Allam brings a fresh perspective to troubled sorcerer Prospero while Colin Morgan is magical as Ariel in this performance of Shakespeare's late great masterpiece, recorded at Shakespeare's Globe in London in 2013 with renaissance costumes and staging.