An excerpt of my review published today in The Atlantic Magazine:
I like adaptations of Shakespeare. He often adapted well-known stories and so the plots of his plays would have been very familiar to his audience—the fall of Troy would have been a bedtime story, the legend of Romeo and Juliet a fairy tale, and A Midsummer’s Night’s Dream, with its forest-bound love story featuring a man turned into an ass by tricksy fairies, a pre-Brother’s Grimm fable….
Gnomeo and Juliet has a stellar cast of voices, ninja gnomes, er, music by Elton John, and, um… I’m sorry. It’s no good. I tried to like it, I really did. But it was, by turns, misogynistic, racist, homophobic, xenophobic, cheap, and dull, with jokes about women, gays, and foreigners that I thought we’d done with decades ago.
Click here to read the full review…
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…
This is wonderful news:
Schoolchildren are to learn Shakespeare by acting out the plays instead of reading them at their desks… Written and oral assessments developed alongside the lessons will show how well students have understood the works.
Full article here…
The Shakespeare Pro App is now on iTunes – and includes mine and my father’s Shakespeare’s Words Glossary…
- The Complete Works of William Shakespeare…
- Every difficult word defined…
- Tales from Shakespeare – A series of 20 short versions of Shakespeare’s plays aimed at a younger audience.
- Random Quotes – simply shake your device for a random quote.
And much more!
Click here for more on the App’s features…
The Cafédirect competition to WIN TICKETS to see a performance at Shakespeare’s Globe AND a signed copy of Shakespeare on Toast ends tomorrow (Tues 30th) at midday!
Click here to find details on how to enter…
After their sponsorship of my talk at the Hay Festival a few weeks ago, Cafédirect, the Globe Theatre and Shakespeare on Toast are teaming up!
All Friends of Cafédirect have the chance to WIN TICKETS to see Troilus & Cressida at Shakespeare’s Globe in London, AND a signed copy of Shakespeare on Toast!
In order to enter the competition simply become a Friend of Cafédirect by clicking here: www.cafedirect.co.uk/friends/newsletter/june09competition… and then get snapping…*
It’s free to become a Friend of Cafédirect, and from what I’ve seen, Troilus at the Globe will be quite an event…
Competition closes midday June 30th 2009.
*the Cafédirect blog will explain all…
Up a considerable 3,345% (!), Shakespeare on Toast is no.5 today in The Book Depository‘s Fast Mover’s list..
Click here to see the list…
Toast has jumped to #257 in the Amazon sales rank, and is
#1 in Books > Poetry, Drama & Criticism > History & Criticism > Drama & Dramatists > 16th to 18th Centuries
#1 in Books > Poetry, Drama & Criticism > Shakespeare, William > Criticism & Study Aids
#2 in Books > Study Books > Undergraduate & Postgraduate > Arts & Humanities > Literature & Drama
Click here to grab a slice for yourself, and Buy The Book…
Amazon has been out of stock of Toast for a little while now – I’m assured it’ll be be back in stock in the next couple of days, but in the mean time I’d recommend The Book Depository, one of my favourite online book stores.
Head to Buy Toast! for relevant direct links…
I’m incredibly pleased to announce I’ve recently signed with a new literary agent – Cathryn Summerhayes at WMA. Her contact details can be found to the right of this post… A very exciting Hallowe’en indeed!
