Shakespeare and America
Monday 23 April 2007 21:45-22:30 (Radio 3)
Matthew Sweet presents a special edition dedicated to the relationship between Shakespeare and America. Matthew hears from guests including actor F Murray Abraham and New York playwright Adriano Shaplin. And Eric Rasmussen, the US co-editor of a new edition of the Complete Works, discusses how Shakespeare is understood stateside.
Playlist
Matthew Sweet marks Shakespeare's Birthday with a special programme on Shakespeare and America.
As some of the greatest plays in world literature did roaring trade on the London Stage, adventurous Brits were leaving for the virgin colonies of the New World.
And when the plays themselves finally made the trans-Atlantic crossing they bit deep into the sensibility of an emerging nation.
From the Californian goldrush and Alexis De Toqueville's claim that every American cabin held a copy of Shakespeare, through monumental performances and even Shakespeare inflected riots in New York to America today and how Shakespeare reflects the cultural and political climate of the Bush presidency.
Matthew visits the Globe theatre with Chicago academic David Bevington to discuss Shakespeare in performance on both sides of the Atlantic; he'll also interview Eric Rasmussen, co-editor of a reversionary new complete works of Shakespeare, and get the low down on the latest Shakespeare productions in New York from critic Carey Lovelace.
The RSC's playwright in residence, Adriano Shaplin, and Professor Carol Rutter, fresh back from the annual meeting of the Shakespeare Association of America, complete the line up for a programme aiming to see just how far under the skin of Americans Shakespeare has got and whether they, in fact, appreciate his genius more than we in Britain do.
