Annual parade. Marks the 400th anniversary of Shakespeare’s death. Shakespeare is regarded by many as the greatest writer in the English language and the world’s pre-eminent dramatist.
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The theatrical parade saw a funeral bier of flowers pulled through the picture-postcard streets, while performers marched along wearing pantaloons, ruffs and codpieces.
President Barack Obama watches a performance of Shakespeare’s Hamlet, at the Globe Theatre in London.
In Washington, U.S. Supreme Court Justice Stephen Breyer was among those talking about Shakespeare during a program called “The Wonder of Will Live” at the Folger Shakespeare Library, which stands next to the Library of Congress.
Benedict Cumberbatch performs as Hamlet in the play’s performance at the Barbican Centre, London a year ago.
Playing a key role in this year’s landmark anniversary is the Royal Shakespeare Company (RSC), whose grand Stratford theatre on the banks of the River Avon continues to stage and exhibit the Bard’s enormous legacy.
Shakespeare was born, lived, worked, died and was buried in Stratford, a quiet Warwickshire market town.
At the Globe, the USA president watched intently before clapping loudly and joining the cast on stage at the part open-air theatre, the brainchild of American actor and director Sam Wanamaker.
The Bard of Avon is believed to have died on his birthday, April 23, in his native Stratford-upon-Avon in 1616.
“That was wonderful. I don’t want it to stop”, Obama said of the tale of the melancholy prince before shaking hands with the actors.
Dominic Dromgoole, outgoing artistic director of the Globe, put Shakespeare’s timeless appeal down to “fantastic stories that sit at the heart of human experience in all forms”. “And when you travel the world, you suddenly see how much more he means than what we understand of him here”. Shakespeare doesn’t just mean one thing and doesn’t just mean the English language, he has all of these meanings.
A parade took place in Stratford to mark the anniversary.
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He later wrote some of the most well-known plays in history, including Hamlet, Macbeth, A Midsummer Night’s Dream, Othello, The Merchant of Venice, Romeo and Juliet and Much Ado About Nothing.
