Lear, Austria; The Reader’s Organisation, London; Swanwick Writer’s Summer School, Swanwick…
A tremendous 15 or so days in Styria, Austria, playing Edgar in King Lear, in the courtyard of a Medieval castle. Pictures have been posted on Twitter & Facebook, and will be up here on the Gallery soon…
A few days after coming back to London, I gave a talk to a group with The Readers Organisation, dedicated to helping bring literature to disadvantaged and homeless members of society. They were off to see The Comedy of Errors at the Open Air Theatre, Regent’s Park, and I spoke with the group for an hour or so, introducing them to the play and Shakespeare in general. A kind bit of feedback, from one of the play-goers:
She was telling several people after the group today how much she had enjoyed the day. She especially loved the session with Ben and told us how she had been very nervous about going to a Shakespeare play and had been thinking it was a mistake to go. She said his easy forthright way of talking was very comfortable and his advice to not worry about the words and just enjoy it was fantastic and put her very much at ease. She said she phoned her father and told him she had been to a Shakespeare play and asked him if he was proud of her….Her excitement was palpable.
Now to the wonderful folk at The Swanwick Writer’s Summer School for the second year, to give their last night, after-dinner talk…