This was to have been our triumphant return to the Wheatsheaf, but Boris’s lockdown extension has put paid to that. Instead Callum Coates will deliver what should be (Delta Variant notwithstanding) our last purely online talk, Shakespeare’s Theatrical World and Modern Attempts to Reconstruct It—Or How I Learned to Stop Hating Shakespeare and Come to Love It. Callum is a professional actor, historical interpreter and self-confessed nerd. He says, “Shakespeare’s plays were written as mass entertainment and cannot have been as boring or unintelligible as they are often made today. Through my personal experience of theatrical experiment, I will attempt to explain how the buildings, the actors and the audience all came together in a perfect fusion for passionate, engaged and intellectual entertainment.”

The talk will be delivered online, through the Zoom link below.

As always there will be a Zoom meeting for social purposes, running from 7pm and continuing after the lecture for as long as folk feel inclined: go to https://us02web.zoom.us/j/84104895543?pwd=eWtlU2FqeG9aeEphb0s1SGd2enJJUT09 (meeting ID: 841 0489 5543, passcode: 543220). There is also a Facebook event at https://www.facebook.com/events/472428957308552 which might be useful to keep an eye on if we have technical problems and need to change the plan.