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

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…

British Psychological Society, Stamford Shakespeare Society, & Rebel Shakespeare Company!

Apologies for the lateness in this post, but last week was somewhat frenetic.

Following on from the great gig at Peter Parker’s Rock’n'Roll Club last Monday, I had been kindly invited to give the after-dinner speech at the British Psychological Society’s 2010 Conference in the ever-beautiful Stratford-upon-Avon. A terrific evening, with much fascinating post-dinner in-depth analysis of Life, the Universe and Everything Shakespeare with some of the delegates.

Then on Friday I whisked myself over to Tolethorpe Hall – a beautiful manor near Stamford, with a wonderful open-air theatre where the Stamford Shakespeare Society perform, to speak at the Cambridge Welland Valley branch of the English Speaking Union for their annual Shakespeare Literary Lunch!

Last, but by no means least, a wonderful day in London’s Regent’s Park yesterday, running a workshop on Acting Shakespeare for a terrific bunch of young American actors, all members of the Rebel Shakespeare Company, from Salem, MA.

Phew!

Oxfam Bookshop, Bloomsbury — Thursday 25th March

This Thursday, 6.30pm…

Readings from Ben Crystal, Anne-Marie Fyffe, and Owen Sheers,
compered by Rakesh Bhanot, Shop Events Manager. The shop will be open from 18:30. Event starts at 18:45. Limited refreshments will be served.

OXFAM BOOKSHOP
12 Bloomsbury Street
WC1B 3QA

The shop can accommodate a maximum of 60 guests (30 seated and 30 standing) so early booking is advised. Please telephone or email to book:

t 020 7637 4610
e oxfambloomsbury@hotmail.co.uk
w www.oxfambloomsburybooks.wordpress.com

Oundle Festival of Literature, and Oxfam Bloomsbury

Two talks up-coming over the next couple of weeks…

15th, 7.30pm — St. Peter’s Church, Oundle, Oundle Festival of Literature
25th, 6.30pm — Bloomsbury Oxfam, with the poets Owen Sheers & Anne-Marie Fyfe

Come one, come all…!

Hip-hop Shakespeare workshop

A couple of videos from the Shakespeare workshop I gave last week, for the Hip-Hop Shakespeare Company & BBC Blast’s Othello Re-told project…

Hip-Hop Shakespeare Company’s Othello Retold

To Manchester to give a Shakespeare workshop for Akala’s Hip-Hop Shakespeare Company and BBC Blast’s Othello Retold project…

Upcoming Events…

Gearing up for the launch of the paperback edition of Toast next week, here’s a look at where and when I’ll be in the coming weeks…

27th May, 7pm — International House, Covent Garden, London

31st May, 9am — Hay-on-Wye Literary Festival – It may be early morning, but Toast will be served, and coffee will be provided by Cafedirect!

4th June, 7pm — Notting Hill Waterstones

10th June, 9am — BBC Radio 4, Midweek with Libby Purves

11th June, 10am — BBC Radio Bristol, Graham Torrington’s show

11th June, 7pm — Brendan Books, Old Brewery Buildings, Bath Place, Taunton, Somerset – Brendan Books was shortlisted for the Independent Bookshop Of The Year…

18th June, 11.05am — BBC Radio Somerset, with Elise Rayner

19th June, 9.15pm — BBC Radio 3, The Verb, with Ian McMillan

22nd June, 6pm — Shakespeare’s Globe, Nancy Knowles Lecture Theatre, ‘Speaking English in Shakespearean London’ with David Crystal

25th June, 7pm — School of Life, Show and Tell with Damian Barr. Also with Laura Lockington and David Nicholls…

15th July, 7.30pm – Ways With Words, Dartington Hall, Devon

<< See more at the Book Festivals Dates Page

Cafedirect & Toast at Hay-on-Wye

This coming Sunday 31st, as part of The Guardian Hay-on-Wye Literature Festival, I’ll be talking all things Shakespeare, at the breakfast hour of 9am.

Cafedirect is sponsoring the event, providing free coffee – and I’ll see if I can’t rustle up some toast and jam to go with the Toast…

Come one, come all… Click here for a link to the Hay website… and below to the right for details of Cafedirect… also their blogpost here…