{"id":12550,"date":"2012-07-19T00:59:46","date_gmt":"2012-07-18T22:59:46","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.myza.co.za\/07\/uk-exhibition-stresses-shakespeares-relevance-today\/"},"modified":"2012-07-19T00:59:46","modified_gmt":"2012-07-18T22:59:46","slug":"uk-exhibition-stresses-shakespeares-relevance-today","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.myza.co.za\/press\/uk-exhibition-stresses-shakespeares-relevance-today\/","title":{"rendered":"UK exhibition stresses Shakespeare’s relevance today"},"content":{"rendered":"

\t\t<\/span><\/p>\n

By Mike Collett-White<\/span><\/p>\n

<\/span><\/p>\n

LONDON, July 18<\/span> (Reuters) – Anyone wondering whether
\nShakespeare’s plays are relevant today could do worse than
\nvisiting a new exhibition at London’s British Museum dedicated
\nto the “Bard”, and, more importantly, the world in which he
\nlived.<\/p>\n

<\/span><\/p>\n

Parallels between the works of Britain’s greatest cultural
\nexport, his own tumultuous times and the contemporary world run
\nthroughout “Shakespeare: staging the world”, which opens on
\nThursday in the vaulted, circular Reading Room.<\/p>\n

<\/span><\/p>\n

Using some 200 objects, many dating from the late 16th and
\nearly 17th century, the exhibition seeks to conjure up London as
\nit was when Shakespeare was a dramatist at the Globe theatre at
\na time when professional playwrights were a new phenomenon.<\/p>\n

<\/span><\/p>\n

It is part of the London 2012 Festival, a celebration of
\nBritish culture designed to coincide with the Olympic Games
\nopening in the city next week, and of the World Shakespeare
\nFestival celebrating the playwright through to November.<\/p>\n

<\/span><\/p>\n

Among the prize exhibits is the so-called “Robben Island
\nBible”, a cheap edition of the complete works of Shakespeare
\nkept secretly at the South African jail by political prisoner
\nSonny Venkatrathnam in the 1970s.<\/p>\n

<\/span><\/p>\n

Disguised as a Hindu religious book, Venkatrathnam handed
\nthe volume to other prisoners on Robben Island, including Nelson
\nMandela, one of dozens who signed their name next to passages
\nthat resonated with them personally.<\/p>\n

<\/span><\/p>\n

The “bible” is opened at “Julius Caesar”, where in 1977
\nMandela left his name beside a passage that begins:<\/p>\n

<\/span><\/p>\n

“Cowards die many times before their deaths;
\n\u00a0 Continued…<\/strong><\/span><\/p>\n

<\/span><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

By Mike Collett-White LONDON, July 18 (Reuters) – Anyone wondering whether Shakespeare’s plays are relevant today could do worse than visiting a new exhibition at London’s British Museum dedicated to the “Bard”, and, more importantly, the world in which he lived. Parallels between the works of Britain’s greatest cultural export, his own tumultuous times and […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_genesis_hide_title":false,"_genesis_hide_breadcrumbs":false,"_genesis_hide_singular_image":false,"_genesis_hide_footer_widgets":false,"_genesis_custom_body_class":"","_genesis_custom_post_class":"","_genesis_layout":"","ngg_post_thumbnail":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":false,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","default_image_id":0,"font":"","enabled":false},"version":2}},"categories":[1],"tags":[830,2370,183],"class_list":{"0":"post-12550","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","6":"category-south-africa","7":"tag-news","8":"tag-reuters","9":"tag-south-africa-2","10":"entry"},"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.myza.co.za\/press\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/12550","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.myza.co.za\/press\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.myza.co.za\/press\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.myza.co.za\/press\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.myza.co.za\/press\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=12550"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.myza.co.za\/press\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/12550\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.myza.co.za\/press\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=12550"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.myza.co.za\/press\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=12550"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.myza.co.za\/press\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=12550"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}