Globe to Globe

Shakespeare has been on my mind lately. I've just been to another class at my brilliant local Questors Theatre in Ealing. It's a few years now since I acted in a production there but I like to 'keep my hand in' so a series of Shakespeare workshops is just the thing. Thanks to the RSC, which has finally woken up to the value of amateur theatre, Questors is one of 57 theatre groups working with the RSC over 2011-12, in skills exchange and training. Under the 'Open Stages' banner and supported by grant funding, all of us 250 Questors acting members have the opportunity to improve our understanding of Shakespeare texts and our acting skills. Re-inspired by examining the rhythms, rhyme and pure power of Shakespeare's First Folio edition of 'Hamlet', I was delighted to hear about the Globe Theatre's 2012 multilingual feast, announced this week. Next Spring, 37 Shakespeare plays will be presented in 37 different languages, performed by 37 different international companies. What a marvellous contribution to the Cultural Olympiad! Supported by local ambassadors who will be 'selling' the performances into local ex-pat communities, we all have the chance to experience Shakespeare through another culture's eyes. I'm sure that the universality and timelessness of the Bard will triumph. Might not be everyone's cup of tea though. A friend of mine has just been to see 'Playboy of the Western World' at the Old Vic and swears she didn't understand a word of it, so thick were the Irish accents. So she might take some persuading though I'm certainly up for booking tickets.