World’s voices put the Bard centre stage in BBC’s Living Shakespeare series

The way Shakespeare resonates in the lives of five luminaries from around the globe is the subject of the Living Shakespeare series going live on Monday 5 September across BBC World Service’s multilingual output, on BBC World News television and the website bbc.com.

BBC World Service has produced the series as part of the project marking 400th anniversary of Shakespeare’s death, in partnership with the British Council, the UK's international organisation for educational opportunities and cultural relations, and The Open University, the UK's foremost distance learning academic institution. Living Shakespeare brings testimonies from exceptional cultural, social and political figures who share their personal experience with the Bard’s creations.

The BBC series producer, Jonathan Wells said: “It doesn’t matter in what language or what country, William Shakespeare is still as relevant today as he was 400 years ago. As our five international luminaries illustrate in the series, it is always possible to tie the issues of the modern world to Shakespeare’s works. Britain’s greatest writer is still very much alive and living in 2016!”

In the three-minute films produced by the BBC World Service and to be broadcast across the BBC’s international news services:

• South African actor Dr John Kani recounts his experiences playing Othello in 1987, at the height of Apartheid. He takes stock on how far the country has come and contemplates the continued relevance of the play in its still divided society
• Chinese author Hong Ying looks at Shakespeare’s sonnets as they relate to sexuality and love in China. Banned during the Cultural Revolution, Shakespeare later became a cultural touchstone for Hong Ying and other artists in the 1980s. The sonnets are taking on a new resonance among the gay community of China today
• Bollywood actor Kalki Koechlin explores the character of Ophelia and relates her situation to the complex and often confusing role of women in Indian society
• Scottish musician Dame Evelyn Glennie talks about her unique way of hearing and interpreting “The Tempest”. Profoundly deaf, she hears the sounds in the words of the characters, perceiving them with her whole body to explore the “sound colours” in the text
• Choreographer Alissar Caracalla tells the story of her company’s famous “Oriental Night” – a production based on “Midsummer Night’s Dream”, devised and performed in the Chouf Mountain during the closing months of the Lebanese Civil War.

The Living Shakespeare series will go live on bbc.com/livingshakespeare on 5 September. BBC World News television will broadcast one episode a week from that date, at 05.55, 10.55, 12.55, 15.50 and 18.55 GMT. The films are made in Arabic, Chinese, Hindi and English – and are translated for use across BBC World Service’s multiple language outputs.

Living Shakespeare is a collection of essays commissioned by the British Council as part of the Shakespeare Lives project which celebrates William Shakespeare’s influence on culture, language, education and society. As well as the contributors featured by the BBC World Service, the British Council has also published essays by US Secretary of State John Kerry, Nobel Prize winner Wole Soyinka and renowned Algerian novelist Ahlem Mosteghanemi. The complete essays can be read on the Shakespeare Liveswebsite. The Open University is a co-funder of the project, and provided academic consultation and expertise throughout the process.

LN