Shakespeare on Toast

After selling out at The Bath Literature Festival, The Sunday Times Oxford Literary Festival and the Shakespeare Bookshop Literary Lunch, a quick note to give the heads up to:

* The Stratford-upon-Avon Literary Festival on May 1st, at 6.30pm, where I’ll be speaking with Jonathan Bates and Christopher Rush

* The Hay-on-Wye Literature Festival on May 31st, at 9am (Toast will be served)

* The first London Toast talk, at the Notting Hill Waterstones, on June 4th, at 7pm…

More details of these events – and links to their websites – can be found here…

* And hot on their heels, fresh from the oven, the paperback edition of Shakespeare on Toast will be published on 4th June by Icon Books…

In the meantime, a write-up of Toast and growing discussion at Lizzy’s Literary Life:

This is a fascinating read – Shakespeare toasted lightly and buttered, slice by slice, by an author/actor whose passion for the subject shines through.

Speaking today at 1pm at the Shakespeare Birthplace Trust, Stratford-upon-Avon, as part of the Shakespeare Bookshop’s literary lunchtime series…

Writer & blogger Libby Walkup on my Bath Lit Fest talk:

Ben toured us around the globe drawing pictures with his arms, his gaze and imagination. He invited two volunteers to read a scene from Macbeth. With minor instruction and an explanation of how Will’s iambic pentameter worked and its intended use, the random selection from the audience had a successful mini acting lesson, and we heard it first, Ben Crystal is opening a production company.

Click here to read the article in full…

Speaking at the Sunday Times Oxford Literary Festival next week, on Thursday 2nd April at 7pm:

Shakespearean actor Ben Crystal brings the language and colourful characters of the world’s greatest writer to life.

In his lighthearted but highly accessible book, he opens the door to a fresh understanding of Shakespeare’s plays, helps us negotiate our way through his more challenging writing, and makes him newly accessible and relevant.

As The Independent said of the book, “Having Crystal as a companion through the stickier parts of Hamlet and Macbeth is like going to the theatre with an intelligent friend.”

Click here for more…

I’ll be live on air with Dotun Adebayo and Up All Night this coming Sunday night / Monday morning, at 2am, discussing all things Shakespeare…

Click here to Listen Live and join in the discussion, or if for some ridiculous reason you’re not up so late (/early!) you’ll be able to Listen Again for a week following…

I gave my talk at the Bath Literature Festival yesterday to a terrific crowd of over 200 people. EssentialWriter.com‘s Judy Darley has posted a write-up…

Ben opened the presentation with a reading that began in the stilted voice of an eleven-year-old, before exploding into a passion and fervour than made some audience members choke on their complimentary glass of Highland Park malt whisky.

Click here for the piece in full…

Speaking at the Bath Lit Fest this Friday 6th, at the Guildhall, 1pm…

Come one, come all. Click here for more…

Toast and I featured in Katy Guest’s The Week in Books in yesterday’s Independent:

Crystal tries his damnedest as an actor, scholar and Shakespeare’s biggest fan to demystify the Bard for doubting 21st-century theatre-phobics.

Click here for the article in full…

Toast was recently chosen as Pick of the Week and reviewed by Bruce Elder in the Sydney Morning Herald:

If you have read Shakespeare or seen a Shakespearean play and you have not been swept off your feet by the sheer power and beauty of the drama and the language, then you, too, should read this book…

This is a remarkable primer for anyone who wants to understand the true genius of the greatest writer the world has known.

Click here to read the review in full…

A review I gave late last year to About.com‘s Lee Jamieson on performing Shakespeare is now up:

You have to think about the big speeches in Shakespeare as the most important things the character has ever said; they need to be spoken with your chest cut open, your heart bare, and with tremendous passion. You need to tear the words from the sky. If you don’t feel like you’ve run a marathon when you’re done, you’re not doing it right. It takes courage to open yourself up to an audience like that, letting them see your insides without desperately trying to show them – it takes practice.

Click here to read more…