Shakespeare’s birthday: Seven things you MUST do for the Bard’s 400th anniversary

From parades to fireworks, the 400th anniversary of the Bard’s death on April 23 is time to play.

AVON CALLING
The big day itself will be celebrated in Stratford-upon-Avon with a parade as well as an acrobatic performance in riverside Bancroft Gardens inspired by Shakespeare’s stories. Family events will include free theatre skills workshops, demonstrations, performances and drop-in activities.

Shakespeare Live! at the Royal Shakespeare Theatre, hosted by David Tennant (invitation only, I’m afraid), will be broadcast on BBC2 and in cinemas throughout the world at 8.30pm.

After the show has finished, a spectacular fi reworks display at 10.30pm will culminate with The Bard’s face appearing in flames.

PLAY TIME
St Albans Shakespeare Festival will feature every single one of The Bard’s 37 plays (as well as his poems) in some form in 31 performances by 14 artists and companies, incorporating choral singing, classical music, poetry, comedy and dance at a dozen locations around the ancient city.

Highlights include Henry V by Merely Theatre (no sets or frilly costumes) and a haunting re-imagining of Hamlet. Runs until June.

THERE’S A PLACE
Get behind the scenes in The Other Place, the Royal Shakespeare Company’s Stratford-upon-Avon studio theatre, just reopened after almost 10 years with a 200-seat auditorium and two rehearsal rooms. There’s also a new costume store and the Page To Stage tour (tickets £8.50 per adult) lets you get your hands on the outfits if not try them on.

ROOM FOR IMPROVEMENT
The room where Shakespeare was educated and where he first saw professional theatre is open to the public for the first time.

Built between 1418 and 1420, the room, in the King Edward VI School, served as the centre of civic life and governance in Stratford for more than 400 years and is still used as a classroom by the school today.

An incredibly atmospheric experience is being created in Shakespeare’s Schoolroom & Guildhall, an attraction (opening for the anniversary on April 23) that will visit expresstravel.co.uk transport visitors right back to life as it was in the 16th century.

GOING GLOBAL
You simply can’t miss Shakespeare’s Globe Theatre situated on London’s Bankside.

Hamlet returns on April 23-24 for four final performances in its two-year Globe To Globe tour of every country in the world. Tickets are limited but you can still get the flavour by taking in the exhibition in the theatre’s underbelly, which shows The Globe as it would have been in the centre of what was London’s most notorious entertainment district.

ROYAL WIVES
When Shakespeare wrote The Merry Wives Of Windsor, said to have been commissioned by Queen Elizabeth I, he was staying in town.

And the play was first performed in private at Windsor Castle. Ye Old King’s Head in Church Street, and the Harte and Garter (where two former inns, the White Hart and the Garter, once stood) both lay claim to being the spot where it was written.

Windsor Castle’s Shakespeare in the Royal Library exhibition (until January 1) has Shakespeare works collected by the royal family and accounts of performances at the castle.

SKY HIGH
The Shakespeare Oxford festival runs right though until December with everything from a full catalogue of plays to hip-hop Shakespeare in nightclubs.

There’s a parade on April 23, and the Shakespeare under the Sky summer season, including Twelfth Night in Trinity College Gardens. The festival will also feature performances at Oxford Castle and varied parks and gardens.

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