by Annette Rubery | Jul 6, 2023 | Literature, Shakespeare
If there’s one idea, for me, that’s central to As You Like It, it’s freedom. I think of this play – first performed in 1599 – as Shakespeare’s most verdant (even more so than The Winter’s Tale). Having studied it 30 years ago, I thought I knew it, but a re-read...
by Annette Rubery | Jun 24, 2023 | Book review, Literature
Like many readers of Super-Infinite: The Transformations of John Donne, I knew almost nothing about the poet before picking up the book apart from vague memories of learning about metaphysical poetry at school. The fact that Donne’s poems seem to be either sexual or...
by Annette Rubery | May 21, 2023 | History, Literature
New leaves on our cutting of Johnson's Fourth Willow, Spring 2023. Photograph: Annette Rubery. Dr Johnson figure, carved from the wood of the Third Willow. Houghton Library, Harvard. Photograph: Annette Rubery. When the Corporation of Stratford-upon-Avon wanted the...
by Annette Rubery | May 3, 2023 | Literature, Shakespeare
Cymbeline directed by Gregory Doran (2023). Gregory Doran’s production of Cymbeline at the Royal Shakespeare Company (2023) is a triumph. It’s the 50th production which Doran (now Artistic Director Emeritus) has staged for the company, and quite a challenge (the...
by Annette Rubery | Feb 3, 2023 | Literature
Wilhelm Marstrand, Don Quixote og Sancho Panza ved en skillevej, uden datering (efter 1847). Wikimedia Commons. Can there be anything more daunting than writing about Don Quixote? In the same way as Shakespeare, Cervantes is such a towering figure in world literature...
