Rendering №5

The article published on the website of the newspaper “The Telegraph” on March 1, 2013 is headlined “Testing children on Shakespeare can give them 'demons', Mark Rylance says”. The article denounces the view of Mark Rylance, a former artistic director of the Globe Theatre that schoolchildren should not be given rigid tests on Shakespeare, as he fears struggling with the Bard leaves pupils feeling culturally inferior and with “demons”.

Speaking of the article it is necessary to note that, as part of a new documentary about why people are “so scared of Shakespeare”, Rylance joined a host of British actors including Dame Judi Dench, Sir Ian McKellen, and Ralph Fiennes to speak up for the poet. It’s an open secret that the programme, to be broadcast on BBC Four this autumn and provisionally titled Muse of Fire, shows two young actors travelling the globe with video cameras to find out what people really think of Shakespeare. It was revealed that one way children met Shakespeare was through was “what is called the “forced march to an exam test” – GCSE or SAT questions about what’s right and wrong”.

Analyzing the situation it is necessary to note that the documentary, which will also be exhibited at festivals from next month, features interviews with Romeo + Juliet director Baz Luhrman, Ewan Mcgregor, Zoe Wanamaker, James Earl Jones, Ben Kingsley and John Hurt. In this connection it is worthwhile mentioning the fact that Dame Judi Dench said there was “some kind of glory” in performing Shakespeare, as she spoke of teaching people his work was nothing to be “frightened of”. Moreover, actor Jude Law added that the Bard was the “centre of all that we do as actors” but remained “intimidating to so many people”.

The article draws a conclusion that the programme, Muse of Fire, was announced as part of the coming season of arts programming on BBC Four and, moreover, there is also a lot of comment on the creation of the documentary by Dan Poole and Giles Terera. As for me I think that it is quite an interesting and unusual idea to create a programme like this one. It is very curious that the author took such trouble to put the expressions of human nature, and the nature of the universe, into a playful, sensual, emotional, story form; as remarkably as Shakespeare. So , I’m looking forward to see this programme.