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Brunel Spring Debate

'Who was Shakespeare? Controversies surrounding Shakespeare’s authorship.' Sir Derek Jacobi and Mark Rylance in discussion with Dr William Leahy

The Howell Centre Theatre, Brunel University’s Uxbridge Campus
Wednesday 22 April 2009: 6.00pm – 8.30pm

The Shakespeare Authorship Question is a subject which interests millions of people around the globe and divides opinion like no other issue. For some, the question of investigating whether Shakespeare wrote the plays and poems attributed to him is a legitimate, historical concern. To others, particularly academics, it is tantamount to Holocaust denial or a belief in Creationism. Others still find it a subject of great amusement and mischief.

Mark Rylance and Sir Derek Jacobi, two of the great Shakespearean actors of our time have doubts that Shakespeare wrote the works attributed to him. In this discussion, led by Dr Leahy, both Mark and Sir Derek will talk about these doubts and about the reactions these doubts have produced. Have their careers been affected? Have friends/colleagues/family rejected them? Have they doubts about their doubts?

Prior to the Debate, the University will confer an honorary degree upon Mark Rylance. Actor, theatre director and playwright Mark Rylance is probably best known as the first Artistic Director of Shakespeare’s Globe Theatre in London.

'Who was Shakespeare?' promises to be a fascinating evening and demand for tickets is likely to be high. Please reply as quickly as possible to ensure your seat.

RSVP by Monday 6 April either by email to events@brunel.ac.uk, telephone 01895 265936 (or 01895 265581) or by post to: Brunel University, Uxbridge,
Middlesex, UB8 3PH

 

 
 


The Man Who Was Hamlet
Who really wrote Hamlet? Award-winning performer George Dillon returns to Edinburgh after six years with his new play, The Man Who Was Hamlet, which tells the comical, tragical, romantic and utterly scandalous history of Edward de Vere, 17th Earl of Oxford, the leading alternative candidate for the authorship of the works of ‘William Shakespeare’.

Click for details

Contested Will: Who Wrote Shakespeare?
by James Shapiro
Faber £20 pp360

At long last, a noted Stratfordian has got round to doing what Oxfordians have been asking them to do for years and published a considered critique of the Shakespeare Authorship Question.

Click for details