We chatted yesterday about the enormous influence Shakespeare had on the English language, and how his birthday is a good time celebrate not necessarily his age, but his modern cultural influences.

Today, I thought it might be fun to realize how much Shakespeare’s work has influenced not just the English-speaking world, but the entire population of this vast and diverse planet.  This year, the 400th anniversary of his death, has seen a huge number of productions of the Bard’s great work, in venues ranging from a garden in Kabul to a restaurant in Mumbai; and in formats as diverse as the people who perform them, including using Brazilian circus performers who help tell the tale of Romeo and Juliet and a Maori tradition war dance (known as a Haka) to interpret Troilus and Cressida.  Check out their journey to the Globe Theatre in London right here:

http://youtu.be/O1z5rN8CxZQ

You can check out the full range of incredible performances and performers at the website  Year of Shakespeare, which has tirelessly documented the various invocations of the Great Man’s work across the planet, many of which have been, or will be, performed at the Globe Theatre in London.

What’s remarkable about these performance is the ways in Shakespeare is not just the fact that his work has inspired humans across the planet, and clearly continues to do so, but also in ways in which his work is invoked to tell modern stories about contemporary experiences, as well.  In Pakistan, actors use The Taming of the Shrew as way to explore the difficulties encountered by Pakistani women in today’s society (a picture of their performance at the Globe is to the left).  Bahgdad’s Iraq Theater Company staged a version of Romeo and Juliet to reflect contemporary rifts in society.  Check out a talk from the director below:

A Polish production of Macbeth has used the concept of insanity to look at all those ostracized and isolated from society, including drug addicts and gangsters, implicitly questioning not only Macbeth’s motivations, but our own.  A theater troupe from South Sudan–the newest country on the globe– has translated Cymbeline into Juba Arabic for the first time ever, and incorporated contemporary local slang and indigenous folklore, as a way of bringing Shakespeare’s story closer and closer to the current lived experience of its actors.  You can watch the incredible labor of love that this project is in the video below:

This week, Radio Free Europe released a video of Hamlet’s immortal “To be or not to be” soliloquy, performed by actors from countries across the former Soviet Union, each in their own native language.  Check it out in the clip below:

 

What is wondrous about all these performances is how intensely personal, how deeply felt, and how powerfully insightful each of these performances, and the countless others going on this year, truly are.  These are not the dull recitations of a man dead for four centuries…they are the living, breathing embodiment of a contemporary culture, using the words and tales handed down, generation by generation, from a remarkable storyteller.  These aren’t simply lines on a page–they have become the words through which actors, directors, and viewers around the world have spoken a truth about their own experiences, providing a voice to people who have so long been voiceless, and representation for those who might otherwise be overlooked, and uniting people around the world with plots and characters as real and recognizable today as they were in the 17th century.

That is nothing short of remarkable.  And it is the power that Shakespeare’s tale still have, and the freedom they have given to so many, that we are celebrating when we celebrate Shakespeare.  So check out Year of Shakespeare, and celebrate with us, wherever you are, and in whatever language speaks to your heart.

We are a celebratory lot here at the Free For All, and one of the biggest parties taking place in the literary world this year is the celebration of Shakespeare’s 400th birthday this coming Saturday.

There are any number of celebrations going on this time of year, from the Royal Shakespeare Company’s live performance of some of the Bard’s greatest hits on Saturday to Chicago’s month-long Shakespeare festival, to the Shakespeariad, a joint venture between the British Council and the Russian school children to get Shakespeare into as many classrooms as possible.  Or, you can come to the Library, and check out our very own marvelous collection of Shakespeare biographies, works, and analysis, some of which are on the Free For All Book Display right now!

It’s easy, sometimes, to think of Shakespeare as antiquated, to remember how difficult it was read Macbeth in high school, or to think of his performances in black and white.  And all that makes it difficult to realize that Shakespeare’s work in an integral part of the new stories we are telling today.  Not only are his characters and plots (star-crossed lovers, duplicitous friends, greedy underlings) all ones to which we can still readily relate, but his use of words revolutionized the English language.  If you’ve ever told someone that a thing is a “foregone conclusion”, or that they are sending you “on a wild goose chase”, or that you are “lonely” or “uncomfortable”….heck, if you’ve ever told a knock-knock joke, you are invoking Shakespeare in the most modern way possible.

The Independent recently published a list of words and phrases to which we owe Shakespeare our thanks.  Have a look, and then come in and check out some of his plays–on paper or on dvd–and see for yourself just how powerful these works still are!

– “Fancy-free” – A Midsummer Night’s Dream

– “Lie low” – Much Ado About Nothing

– “Send packing” – Henry IV

– “Foregone conclusion” – Othello

– “A sorry sight” – Macbeth

– “For goodness sake” – Henry VIII

– “Good riddance” – The Merchant of Venice

– “Neither here not there” – Othello

– “Mum’s the word” – Henry VI, Part II

– “What’s done is done” – Macbeth

– “Break the ice” – The Taming of the Shrew

– “Scuffle” – Antony and Cleopatra

– “Catch a cold” – Cymbeline

– “Uncomfortable” – Romeo and Juliet

– “Manager” – A Midsummer Night’s Dream

– “Devil incarnate” – Titus Andronicus

– “Dishearten” – Henry V

– “Eventful” – As You Like It

– “New-fangled” – Love’s Labour’s Lost

– “Hot-blooded” – King Lear

– “Eaten out of house and home” – Henry IV, Part II

– “Rant” – Hamlet

– “Knock knock! Who’s there?” – Macbeth

– “With bated breath” – The Merchant of Venice

– “Laughable” – The Merchant of Venice

– “Negotiate” – Much Ado About Nothing

– “Jaded” – King Henry VI

– “A wild goose chase” – Romeo and Juliet

– “Assassination” – Macbeth

– “Too much of a good thing” – As You Like It

– “A heart of gold” – Henry V

– “Such stuff as dreams are made on” – The Tempest

– “Fashionable” – Troilus and Cressida

– “Puking” – As You Like It

– “Dead as a doornail” – Henry VI, Part II

– “Not slept one wink” – Cymbeline

– “The world’s mine oyster” – The Merry Wives of Windsor

– “Obscene” – Love’s Labour’s Lost

– “Bedazzled” – The Taming of the Shrew

– “In stitches” – Twelfth Night

– “Addiction” – Othello

– “Faint-hearted” – Henry VI, Part I

– “One fell swoop” – Macbeth

– “Vanish into thin air” – Othello

– “Swagger” – Henry V

– “Own flesh and blood” – Hamlet

– “Zany” – Love’s Labour’s Lost

– “Give the devil his due” – Henry IV, Part I

– “There’s method in my madness” – Hamlet

– “Grovel” – Henry IV

– “Lonely” – Coriolanus

– “Unreal” – Macbeth

– “Salad days” – Antony and Cleopatra

– “Spotless reputation” – Richard II

– “Full circle” – King Lear

– “Epileptic” – King Lear

– “Arch-villain” – Timon of Athens

– “Bloodstained” – Titus Andronicus

– “All of a sudden” – The Taming of the Shrew

– “Come what, come may” – Macbeth