While the calendar of Shakespeare400 activities will last for several months, an array of lectures, performances, and conversations were gathered together in February, 2016, for “What You Will,” the King’s Shakespeare Festival. This four day long extravaganza included talks by a number of preeminent Shakespearean scholars, poetry and play readings presented by both new and long-heralded writers, concerts, and a conversation with renowned Shakespearean actor, Simon Russell Beale.

The festival took place at the King’s Strand campus, adjacent to Somerset House, which currently features an exhibit entitled “By me: William Shakespeare: A life in Writing” that includes documents containing two thirds of the known extant Shakespearean signatures. The topics highlighted in this exhibit reverberated through the various lectures presented, which often focused on biographical aspects of Shakespeare’s life and legend. Including academic luminaries Marjorie Garber (Harvard), Lena Cowen Orlin (Georgetown), James Shapiro (Columbia), David Scott Kastan (Yale), Jonathan Hope (Strathclyde), Ann Thompson (King’s College, London), and Neil Taylor (Roehampton), these presentations offered significant insight into the current state of our knowledge about Shakespeare’s life and helped contextualize the way that Shakespeare’s reputation has been shaped by a range of external events. Not surprisingly, given that Shakespeare’s will is on display next door, several of the speakers focused on this document, offering new readings of its text, including nuanced responses to Shakespeare’s infamous bequest of the “second best bed” to his wife.

Predictably, given the prominent status of those presenting, the caliber of these lectures was uniformly high, and each offered substantial new information to their audiences, which were composed of fellow academics and members of the general public. Some of the talks took advantage of the actors present in order to offer staged readings of key historical documents. This proved to be a very effective technique, which enhanced the scholarly points being presented.

The lectures were counterpoised with a series of performative events, beginning with the launch of On Shakespeare’s Sonnets: A Poets’ Celebration, a volume commissioned for this anniversary year. Ten of the poets included in this book presented readings of Shakespeare’s poetry, followed by their own poetic response. Reminiscent of the Globe’s pairing last autumn of contemporary poets with the works of classic writers such as John Donne and Gerard Manley Hopkins, this panel offered a remarkable set of new writing in conversation with Shakespeare.

Additional performances included concerts exploring musical responses to Shakespeare across different centuries and a staged reading of Emma Whipday’s award-winning new play “Shakespeare’s Sister,” which imagines a narrative for Judith Shakespeare, the playwright’s fictive sister, made popular by Virginia Woolf. The Festival also marked the publication of this text, which Samuel French is hoping will capture the imagination of many theatrical companies, particularly those seeking drama featuring strong female roles.

The venues at King’s were all bursting at the seams with enthusiastic audience members, suggesting that the public is eager for this mix of Shakespearean scholarship, adaptation, and performance. By concluding with a conversation between renowned Shakespearean actor Simon Russell Beale and Dr. Sonia Massai, the organizers at King’s ensured that people would remain throughout the weekend, even though several comments were made about the priorities of those choosing to spend Valentine’s Day at a Shakespeare event.

Remarkably, however, this Shakespeare Festival constituted only part of the Shakespeare-related activities available in London this month. Loads of school children were being introduced to Shakespeare (albeit Shakespeare “light”) at the Royal Albert Hall, where Cirque de Soleil is presenting a show loosely based on The Tempest. Shakespeareans might not recognize much of the narrative being presented, however, since Miranda is here joined in a romantic relationship with Romeo; Prosper(a) is largely absent; and Caliban appears to have merged with Ariel. The production is entitled Amaluna, not The Tempest, which makes the Shakespearean connections even more oblique. The acrobatics are impressive, but the rational for this tenuous Shakespearean provenance remains unclear.

Theatregoers preferring more conventional drama are also presented with a range of Shakespearean options in London right now. Dominic Dromgoole is concluding his tenure as Artistic Director at Shakespeare’s Globe with a series of Shakespearean romances. Concurrently, Kenneth Branagh’s Shakespeare season at the Garrick is presenting Adrian Lester in a remount of the Tricycle’s production about Ira Aldridge (Red Velvet), which has also played in New York. It is fitting that we be reminded about the challenges facing actors of color in the twentieth century, since current circumstances suggest there is an ongoing issue in this arena. Lester presents a commanding Aldridge, although this play (written by the star’s wife, Lolita Chakrabarti) would benefit from some reconceptualization, particularly since the frame story does not really work.

As famed Shakespearean director Peter Brook is presenting a new play at the Young Vic, the opportunities to compare the work of both classic and emerging Shakespearean stars are multiple. The next few months will offer innumerably more Shakespearean productions and events, but this February Festival will be hard to match for quality and diversity.

Sheila T Cavanagh

Fulbright/Global Shakespeare Distinguished Chair