Edgar, King Lear, Austria!

To Austria, to play Edgar in King Lear in a castle for a couple of weeks…!

I’ll post updates and photos from rehearsals and the show on my Twitter account…

FREE TALK, Monday 5th July, 6.30pm

In support of Chalk Farm Library, I’m giving a free talk on the 5th July in the heart of Primrose Hill:

His talks are less of a talk and more of a performance – Ben makes sense of Shakespeare by putting him back into context. It includes an exploration of Elizabethan theatre and what a trip to a Shakespeare play in 1600 would be like, a master-class on the poetry style Shakespeare wrote in, and a look at Original Pronunciation (the accent Shakespeare would have spoken in). It’s relevant for all ages – younger people experiencing the Bard for the first time through to older audience members who love Shakespeare and want to learn something new.

Monday 5th July, 6.30pm
Chalk Farm Library
Sharpleshall Street
London
NW1 8YN

More information can be found here…

The Theatre, Shoreditch

A very special day yesterday:

After giving a talk and two workshops to the Year 10 students at Oundle School, I came back to London and headed to Shoreditch.

A team from the Museum of London has found the remains of The Theatre, the playhouse built by James Burbage, and dismantled by his actor-son Richard, Will Shakespeare & their Company, one night in 1599. The materials were used to build the Globe playhouse across the river.

The Tower Theatre Company have begun a fund-raising project to build a new theatre around the site, and protect the remains. They asked me to come and speak a sonnet there yesterday.

I performed Sonnet 116 in OP on the Groundlings Gravel – one of very few actors to have spoken Shakespeare – and the first time that accent has been heard there – in 400 years.

A breathtaking moment. I’m a very lucky fellow.

Please head to the The Theatre’s website, and support the project.

The Theatre, Shoreditch

JFS School

Lovely day at JFS’ Reading Festival on Tuesday, speaking to their Year 10s.

Back there today, to speak to their Year 12 & 13s.

If you’d like me to come to speak at your school, do get in touch…

Guildford, Thurs 17th June, 7pm: Shakespeare – Love, Sex & Comedy

Tickets are selling fast for my talk this Thursday evening at Guildford’s Electric Theatre:

Diving through Shakespeare’s writings of love, sex and comedy, Ben Crystal (’the Jamie Oliver of Shakespeare’ BBC Radio 5), rediscovers the Bard as master dramatist: a true man of the theatre, who had a terrific sense of what makes a captivating play.

The theatres Shakespeare wrote for were two-way, dynamic – a shared experience with the audience, an afternoon’s journey of love, betrayal, death, lust, comedy and, sometimes, the odd song.
The author of Shakespeare on Toast tackles Shakespeare’s attitude to love, sex and comedy, and finds a lot more tragedy than comedy, more betrayal than love, and more mystery than sex..

Come one, come all! Booking and further details can be found here…

Video clips from the Poland Talks…

From the series of talks I gave last week for Macmillan Poland…

Discussing the difference between performing Shakespeare in RP vs OP (Shakespeare’s accent); then performing Sonnet 116 in RP, and OP; and then reading from the opening chapter of Toast, Schwarzengger’s Hamlet…

OP at Shakespeare’s Globe for OU

Spent a fine morning being filmed running around the Shakespeare’s Globe Theatre with Dad: he explaining the origins of the Original Pronunciation experiments, me acting some examples.

Performed excerpts from Henry V, Romeo & Juliet, As You Like It, A Midsummer Night’s Dream, and all of Sonnet 116 – which sounds SO different in Shakespeare’s accent – then were interviewed about our work together.

All for an Open University film. Lovely to work with Dad again. Lovely to be back in that terrific space.

Now to Poland to give a series of Shakespeare talks, Ash Cloud permitting… (has it really been capitalised?)

Poland – Gdansk, Warszawa, & Krakow

Gearing up to head to Poland next week, giving three talks in three cities in three days, for Macmillan Poland, and their new Global course.

More details can be found on Macmillan’s site here…

Toast nominated for PlayShakespeare.com’s Falstaff Awards!

The kind folks over at www.playshakespeare.com (who’re also responsible for the Shakespeare iPhone App) have had their annual Falstaff Awards, and Shakespeare on Toast was nominated for their Best Book or Publication category.

Up against some steely competition, including Andrew Gurr’s Shakespeare’s Opposites and AD Cousins’ The Shakespeare Encyclopedia, I’m touched and honoured Toast was up for consideration.

Full details of the other categories, including Jude Law’s Hamlet win for Best Principal Performance, can all be found here…

Happy Birthday Will!

In celebration of Shakespeare’s birthday, there are a whole bunch of events and performances across the country today.

They can all be found at www.shakespeare2012.com, a project which says:

The idea is for everyone throughout the United Kingdom to have a once-in-a-lifetime chance to have fun with Shakespeare

Great stuff. I’m a supporter of the organisation, if there’s an event near you today, pop along…