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"Shakespeare in Ten Acts" looks at 10 key performances of the
playwright's works, from the first showing of "Hamlet" at the
Globe theater around 1600 to a contemporary version of that play
in the digital age.
The exhibition opens at London's British Library as theater fans
prepare to mark the anniversary of Shakespeare's death on April
23, 1616.
"It's really difficult to do full justice to Shakespeare's
legacy over the last 400 years," exhibition lead curator Zoe
Wilcox said in a British Library video handout.
"We're not just looking at Shakespeare the man or his most
famous plays, we're focusing in on 10 significant performances
of his work that tell us something about the way that his plays
have been constantly reinvented through the ages."
Highlights include the only surviving play-script in
Shakespeare's handwriting, in which he describes the plight of
refugees. Also on show is a human skull inscribed with poetry
given by French writer Victor Hugo to actress Sarah Bernhardt,
which she used when playing Hamlet in 1899.
Visitors will also be able to see a "Hamlet" script owned by the
likes of Michael Redgrave, Peter O'Toole and now Kenneth Branagh
and theater playbills showing the career highs and lows of Ira
Aldridge, the first black actor to play "Othello" on the English
stage in 1825, organizers said.
"We are using the full range of things we have at our disposal
to bring them (the acts) to life," Wilcox said.
"So sound, video, costumes, props, paintings, everything we can
to give people a sense of what those performances would have
felt like had you been attending them."
"Shakespeare in Ten Acts" runs until September.
(Reporting By Reuters Television; Writing by Marie-Louise
Gumuchian, editing by Pritha Sarkar)
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