SHAKESPEARE GROUP     DO YOU WANT TO JOIN OUR GROUP ??

We look at and then read aloud a different Shakespeare play every few months. We use the Oxford Schools Edition which has a very good introduction and summary and extensive notes as you read along to help you understand the words and the meaning of phrases.

    We study the play at home and come together to read aloud an Act or two at a time. Each session reading and discussion is about an hour and a half or two with refreshments.

         The group and we  meet in the WMCC Jubilee room on second and fourth Friday afternoons at 2.00 in Summer and 1.15 in winter.

SHAKESPEARE
In March our meeting will be on Friday 27th at 1.15 but take note there is no meeting on March13th
We will be starting Henry VI part III the first version of which was published in 1595. Shakespeare sought inspiration from Edward Hall's "The Union of the Two Noble and Illustre famelies of Yorke and Lancastre2 and from Hollinshed's "Chronicles". But was he the sole author of his play?.Originally published as "The true tragedie of Richard Duke of Yorke and the Death of good King Henrie the sixth" So more squabbling of the nobles and perhaps murder.
Coordinator Dennis Eraut 01621 829758

We are continuing with Henry VI part two and have just covered the rebellion in 1450 by Jack Cade and his followers from Kent. The losses in France by the badly organised troops were a source of complaint by people in England as was the bad administration of King Henry's officials. The uprising was popular, and they came to London to Southwark to petition the King.

Civilised at first, they surged into London over the famous bridge and Jack Cade lost control of maybe 3,000 of his followers who all got drunk and started looting. The Londoners objected to this behaviour and pushed them all back the following day, a battle ensued around the bridge and Cade's "army" defeated which led to them all disappearing. Cade was later murdered but the event was one of the precursors to the Wars of the Roses with the Yorkists replacing the Lancastrians.

     

20 Plays read so far are:-                                                           

Macbeth                                             The Tempest

Othello                                                Romeo and Juliet

Taming of the Shrew                          A Winters Tale

Measure for Measure                          Twelfth Night

Julius Caesar                                     Loves Labours Lost

Anthony and Cleopatra                       King Lear

Coriolanus                                            Hamlet

Merchant of Venice                   Much Ado about Nothing

Henry IV Part 1

Henry IV Part II

Henry V

Richard II

      COORDINATOR  Dennis  01621 829758