Mark says Simon Callow was fantastic and brilliant; held the stage, created all the characters and restored any lost magic back into Shakespeare. Mark is regular theatregoer and plans to see another production next month
By far one of England’s most iconic and culturally significant figures, playwright and poet William Shakespeare’s work has had a profound impact on society and culture to this very day. His body of work has been studied and evaluated by many with a number of his most popular plays constantly adapted in new and exciting ways with the Bard’s latest piece of work being the Oscar nominated Coriolanus starring Ralph Fiennes. In a fantastic celebration and look at the Bard’s life, the latest smash hit play to take the Edinburgh Festival by storm, ‘Being Shakespeare’, enjoyed its opening night performance in London’s West End at the Trafalgar Studios. Starring classic British thespian Simon Callow to the stage as William Shakespeare, in ‘Being Shakespeare’, Callow in this one-man effort portrays a series of the Bard’s most famous characters and tells the story behind the man from Stratford Upon-Avon. An exciting new play by Jonathan Bate, ‘Being Shakespeare’ has received critical praise, particularly for the tower house performance of Callow, a man familiar to the Bard’s work having wowed audiences recently as Sir Toby Belch in the National Theatre’s production of Twelfth Night. On Thursday 8th March 2012, London’s Trafalgar Studios played host to the opening night of ‘Being Shakespeare’, where fans and critics alike would gather to see whether this performance would live up to the great hype it had received from its run at the Edinburgh Fringe Festival. WinkBall video reporters Julia and Matt were at Trafalgar Studios to speak to fans and find out what had brought them down to see ‘Being Shakespeare’ and what were they expecting from Simon Callow’s performance.