Globe Celebrates Bard s 435th Birthday

Next month marks the 435th birthday of England's greatest export, William Shakespeare. To celebrate, the reconstructed Globe Theatre at Bankside in London will stage a number of events in honour of the playwright and his work.

Festivities kick off with the Spearshaker talk on Wednesday, 21 April at 7pm. The evening takes the form of a dramatic discussion on citizen rights between the inhabitants of Shakespeare's Rome - including Mark Antony, Calphurnia, Marcus Brutus and Julius Caesar - versus 1990s Britain - represented by political commentators Polly Toynbee and Brian Walden and Globe artistic director Mark Rylance. The discussion provides the public with a chance to influence the action in selected scenes of Julius Caesar, one of the productions in the Globe's forthcoming summer season.

On Friday, 23 April at 7.30pm, the actor, Sir Nigel Hawthorne, will host an evening of music, dance and dramatic narrative at Southwark Cathedral, in which a host of African performers will explore how Shakespeare's Macbeth has been absorbed by different cultures within the African continent.

Finally, on Saturday, 24 April, Mark Rylance will escort walkers on a Shakespearen sonnet tour of Tudor London, from Westminster Abbey to the Globe. The walks will depart at four different times throughout the day - 10.30am, 11.30am, 1.30pm and 2.30pm.

All proceeds from the birthday celebrations will go towards the £6.5 million still needed to build the permanent Exhibition facilities of the International Shakespeare Globe Centre. For further information or to book tickets, call the Globe box office on +44-171-401-9919.

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